Tag: View

2012 Blogging

This blog was viewed about 110,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
In 2012, there were 88 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 485 posts.
The busiest day of the year was March 13th with 616 views. The most popular post that day was Exchange 2010 Opening multiple shared calendars & additional mailboxes.

These are the posts that got the most views in 2012. You can see all of the year’s most-viewed posts in your Site Stats.

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Microsoft Office 2013 KMS Volume License Pack

Volume license editions of Office 2013 client products require activation. This download enables IT administrators to set up a Key Management Service (KMS) or configure a domain for Active Directory-Based activation. Either of these volume activation methods can locally activate all Office 2013 clients connected to an organization’s network.

Download

Overview

If you want to activate volume license editions of Office 2013, Visio 2013, or Project 2013 with a KMS host or Active Directory-Based activation, you need to first install Office 2013 Volume License Pack. When an Office 2013 volume edition client is installed, it will automatically attempt to activate via either Active Directory by using its existing domain pairing or a DNS-discoverable KMS host on your organization network. To set up Active Directory-Based activation, you must be running Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, or newer.
All volume editions of Office 2013 client products are pre-installed with a Generic Volume License Key (GVLK) key, which supports automatic activation for both KMS and Active Directory-Based Activation, so you will not need to install a product key.
This download contains an executable file that will extract and install KMS host license files. These license files are required for the KMS host service to recognize Office 2013 KMS host keys. On Windows Server 2012 and volume license editions of Windows 8, you can use your same KMS host key to set up Active Directory-Based activation.

System requirements

Supported operating systems: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

    • KMS Host: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7 (volume editions), Windows Server 2012, or Windows 8.
    • Active Directory-Based Activation
      • Set-up and Configuration: Windows Server 2012, Windows 8 or newer.
      • Domain controller: Active Directory Domain Services with the Windows Server 2012 schema installed.

Instructions:Microsoft Office 2013 Volume License Pack

  1. You need to perform this step only if you’re setting up a KMS host on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 (volume editions). Download and run the update contained in the KB article below. This update enables your Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7-based KMS host to successfully activate Office 2013 clients that are running on Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012:
    KB 2691586
  2. Download and run the executable file on this page on a supported operating system.
  3. Enter your Office 2013 KMS host key when prompted.
  4. Activate the product key online.
  5. If setting up a KMS host, open port 1688 to allow the KMS host service through the firewall:
    1. Open Control Panel and click on the Windows Firewall icon.
    2. Click the “Allow a program through Windows Firewall” link.
    3. Click the Change Settings button.
    4. Check the box for Key Management Service.
  6. To learn more about configuring your KMS host with slmgr.vbs, see the TechNet documentation found on this page.

MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta released

The MAP Toolkit team announced that MAP Toolkit 8.0 beta is available. MAP Toolkit 8.0 beta has rich feature set to plan and prepare your environment to adopt next wave of Microsoft products and cloud services. The MAP Toolkit has readiness assessments that range from desktop to cloud — Windows 8 to Windows Azure.

The MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta program is open for general testing today and you need to register to download and try MAP Toolkit 8.0 beta in your environment as you prepare your IT infrastructure to evaluate and deploy the latest Microsoft products and cloud services.

MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta is available for download here

MAP Toolkit 8.0 has completely revamped modern user interface, which provides easy and clear access to assessment scenarios supported in MAP Toolkit and assessment summaries and results. If you have used a prior version of the MAP Toolkit, you will find MAP Toolkit 8.0 much easier and simpler to navigate, find and run assessment scenarios you are interested and review the assessment results.

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Following are some of the key assessment scenarios in the MAP Toolkit 8.0:

Windows Server 2012 Readiness

MAP 8.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT infrastructure for deploying Windows Server 2012. This assessment includes detailed and actionable recommendations indicating which machines meet Windows Server 2012 system requirements and which may need hardware updates. A comprehensive inventory of servers, operating systems, workloads, devices, and server roles is included to help in your planning efforts.

Windows 8 Readiness Assessment

MAP 8.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT environment for a Windows 8 deployment. This assessment evaluates your existing hardware against the recommended system requirements for Windows 8. It provides recommendations detailing which machines meet the requirements and which may need hardware upgrades.

Office 2013 and Office 365 Readiness Assessments

MAP 8.0 Beta assesses readiness for Office 2013 and provides an in-depth assessment of client desktops for upgrading or migration. It also offers support for Office 365 features such as web apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, or full Office 365 client support.

Windows Azure Virtual Machines Migration Recommendation

MAP 8.0 Beta performs a comprehensive assessment of Windows Server and Linux machines to determine if a migration to Windows Azure Virtual Machines is possible. The toolkit then offers suggested changes to prepare the machines for migration. Key features help you reduce the operating costs of hosting on-premise servers as well as estimating the required size and monthly network and storage usage required to migrate on-premise Windows and Linux servers to Windows Azure Virtual Machines using the data from the environment.

Software usage assessment for Lync

MAP 8.0 Beta’s Lync Enterprise and Usage Tracking feature counts the number of Lync Enterprise/Plus users as well as device activities for determining the number of required client access licenses (CAL). For Lync 2010, MAP provides a server inventory and software usage by device and user for Lync Standard features. MAP’s updated Software Usage Tracking feature provides consistent software usage reports for key Microsoft products including Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center, Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP), and Lync.

Starting today, beta program will be open for six weeks and will end on Dec 14th, 2012. You can participate in beta by downloading and running MAP Toolkit 8.0 beta in your environment.

MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta is available for download here

Free E-book: Introducing Windows 8 for IT Professionals

Augusto Alvarez Wrote a nice e-book “Introducing Windows 8, an overview for IT Professionals” (preview version).

This book has some quite important topics that every IT guy which is considering implement Windows 8 in their company should read it carefully. Here’s a short summary for the topics included (I’m just naming a few; the entire list is available in the download):

  1. 1. Overview
  2. 2. Experiencing Windows 8
  3. 3. Windows 8 for IT Pros
    • Customizing and configuring Windows 8
    • Client Hyper-V
    • Redesign NTFS
    • PowerShell 3.0
  4. 4. Preparing for Deployment
    • Windows 8 SKUs
    • Application compatibility
    • User state migration
    • Windows To Go
  5. 5. Deploying Windows 8
    • Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit
    • Deployment and Imaging
    • User state migration tool
    • MDT 2012 Update 1
    • e. SCCM 2012 with SP1
    • f. Desktop Virtualization
  6. 6. Delivering Windows Apps
  7. 7. Windows 8 Recovery
    • DaRT
  8. 8. Windows 8 Management
    • Group Policy Improvements
    • Windows Intune
    • Mobile device support
  9. 9. Windows 8 Security
  10. 10. Internet Explorer 10
  11. 11. Windows 8 virtualization
    • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
    • Application Virtualization
    • User State virtualization

I did not read it completely, but for what I’ve seen so far the content is not fully detailed with step-by-steps but contains valuable information and guidance that must be read it if you are implementing / managing Windows 8.

Re-released Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007 update rollups

The Exchange Team re-released the following Rollup Updates. These updates address an issue in which digital signatures on files produced and signed by Microsoft will expire prematurely, as described in Microsoft Security Advisory 2749655.

The re-released Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4 includes the following additional fix:

2756987 Only one result is returned after you click “view all results” in Outlook 2010 or in Outlook 2013 in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

These spreadsheets list the policy settings for computer and user configurations that are included in the Administrative template files delivered with the Windows operating systems specified. You can configure these policy settings when you edit Group Policy Objects.

You can use the filtering capabilities that are included in this spreadsheet to view a specific subset of data, based on one value or a combination of values that are available in one or more of the columns. In addition, you can click Custom in the drop-down list of any of the column headings to add additional filtering criteria within that column.
To view a specific subset of data, click the drop-down arrow in the column heading of cells that contain the value or combination of values on which you want to filter, and then click the desired value in the drop-down list. For example, to view policy settings that are available for Windows Server 2012 or Windows 8, in the Administrative Template worksheet, click the drop-down arrow next to Supported On, and then click At least Microsoft Windows Server 2012 or Windows 8.

What’s New?

The Administrative Template spreadsheet contains three columns that provide more information about each policy setting’s behavior related to reboots, logoffs, and schema extensions. These columns are the following:

  • Reboot Required: A “Yes” in this column means that the Windows operating systems requires a restart before it applies the described policy setting.
  • Logoff Required: A “Yes” in this column means that the Windows operating system requires the user to log off and log on again before it applies the described policy setting.
  • Active Directory Schema or Domain Requirements: A “Yes” in this column means that you must extend the Active Directory schema before you can deploy this policy setting.
  • Status: A “New” in this column means that the setting did not exist prior to Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. It does not mean that the setting applies only to Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. Refer to the column entitled “supported on” to determine to which operating system the policy setting applies.

WindowsServer2012andWindows8GroupPolicySettings.xlsx
Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

BINK

VMware Workstation 9

Windows 8

Workstation 9 has been designed to run on Windows 8 and run Windows 8 virtual machines. Easy Install has been enhanced to recognize Windows 8. Workstation 9 has been enhanced to support the Windows 8 user interface (formerly known as Metro). Toggling between Metro and the Windows Desktop can be done by simply pressing the Windows key on the keyboard and Unity intelligently handles the Metro interface. Workstation 9 also includes multi-touch support for driving the Windows 8 Metro interface running in Workstation on a Windows 8 tablet.

Graphics Improvements

VMware has made substantial changes to Workstation 9 graphics virtualization infrastructure. The enhancements include a display-only graphics driver that can render 3D in Windows 8 without hardware acceleration, improvements to make graphics applications like AutoCAD and SolidWorks render more quickly and accurately, an improved Windows XP graphics driver and fundamental changes to improve performance and enable more advanced graphics capabilities in the future.

OpenGL for Linux Guests

VMware has developed an OpenGL graphics driver and up-streamed it to X.Org. This allows VMware’s customers to use the new graphics capabilities in current Linux distributions without needing to install VMware Tools. The version of X.Org that includes the driver is being shipped in Ubuntu 12.04 among other Linux new distributions. Workstation 9 includes enhancements to the virtual graphics device to improve the overall speed and accuracy of rendering OpenGL graphics in Linux virtual machines.

Restricted Virtual Machines

This new capability allows the author of an encrypted virtual machine to require users to enter an additional password to change their virtual machine settings. This feature enables IT professionals and educational institutions to create virtual machines to be used by their employees and students that prevent these users from enabling shared folders, dragging and dropping files, attaching USB devices, and overcommitting system resources. Restricted virtual machines can be run in VMware Workstation 9, VMware Player 5, and VMware Fusion 5 on Windows, Linux or Mac PCs.

WSX

WSX is a prototype of a new VMware Workstation web interface that enables users to access their Shared virtual machines via a web browser on a tablet, smart phone or PC without installing any additional applications or browser plug-ins. This service renders an HTML5 web page that can connect to your Workstation hosts, enumerate the available Shared virtual machines and allow you to power them on and interact with the desktop. Both the Windows .msi and Linux .bundle installations are available for download along with VMware Workstation 9.0

WSX is currently not supported for production environments. The number of devices and browsers available on the market make it extremely difficult to test this feature thoroughly to ensure it works well everywhere.

This feature requires a very modern browser that supports HTML5 with WebSockets. VMware recommends using the Google Chrome 17 browser on PCs and the Apple Safari 5 browser on Mac OS hosts and iPads. Currently there are issues using this feature with Microsoft Internet Explorer 10. WSX may work with other browsers and on Android tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich with the latest version of Google Chrome installed, but more testing is required.

Downloading Virtual Machines from vSphere

Workstation 8 enabled customers to upload virtual machines to vSphere. Workstation 9 now enables downloading virtual machines from vSphere by dragging them from the remote host to the My Computer section of the Virtual Machine Library.

USB 3.0

Workstation 9 supports attaching USB 3.0 devices to Windows 8 virtual machines. The latest portable devices use USB 3 (SuperSpeed) to achieve faster transfer rates for data. USB 3.0 devices such as portable storage devices and video equipment can be connected directly to Windows 8 and Linux virtual machines that contain in-box drivers USB 3.0 controllers.

Nested Virtualization

Workstation 9 improves the implementation of virtual Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI extensions. This allows users to run ESX as a guest OS and run a 64-bit operating system nested in ESX using less system resources.

Note: If you enabled the virtualization extensions in a virtual machine running on Workstation 8, you might need to disable the extensions, upgrade the virtual machine to the latest virtual hardware version (compatible with Workstation 9), and then re-enable the extensions.

Hyper-V

Hyper-V has been added to the Workstation 9 guest operating system list. This enables customers to run Windows 8 with Hyper-V enabled, or install Hyper-V Server. This can be used for educational purposes or for building prototype Hybrid Clouds. This feature is NOT SUPPORTED and probably never will be. Microsoft does not support nesting of their hypervisor which makes it extremely difficult – if not impossible for VMware to fix issues that may occur in this configuration. For this reason, this capability has been implemented purely to see if we could do it!

CAUTION: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN HYPER-V ON A VIRTUAL MACHINE IN PRODUCTION.

Virtual Performance Counters

VMware virtual processors now include the capability to enable virtual performance counters which will allow developers to run profiling applications, such as Intel’s vTune, in a virtual machine.

Remoting Improvements

The experience when remotely connecting to a virtual machine running in Workstation 9 with a VNC client or interacting with the desktop of a virtual machine running on vSphere from within Workstation has been significantly improved.

Disk Cleanup

Virtual machines consume a large amount of space on your hard drive. Workstation 9 includes a new management option to easily recover disk space.

Quick Switch II

Previous versions of VMware Workstation included a view mode called "Quick Switch" that displayed tabs along the top of the screen to easily switch between running virtual machines. We removed this functionality in Workstation 8. The feedback we received has encouraged us to introduce a similar feature. On Windows, hosts tabs have been included in the full screen toolbar.

Thumbnail Actions

Views of your virtual machine on the task bar now include controls to change the power state.

Saved Filters

Workstation 9 automatically saves recent virtual machine library searches as filters to easily apply them the next time you run Workstation.

Download Licensed Copy

Microsoft Virtual Machine Servicing Tool (VMST) 2012

Virtual Machine Servicing Tool (VMST) 2012 is designed to work with System Center 2012 –Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 SP2.
VMST 2012 helps you reduce IT costs by making it easier to update your offline virtual machines, templates, and virtual hard disks with the latest operating system and application patches—without introducing vulnerabilities into your IT infrastructure.
This Solution Accelerator includes the following components:

  • Brief Overview. Available online only on Microsoft TechNet. Summary for business and technical managers that briefly explains how this Solution Accelerator can fit into an organization’s IT infrastructure management strategy.
  • VMServicing_x64 and VMServicing_x86. Setup files for the tool, for 64 bit and 32 bit versions of Windows with System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager.
  • Virtual Machine Servicing Tool Getting Started Guide. Provides information about how the tool works, explains prerequisites for the tool, and describes how to install and configure the tool.
  • VM_Servicing_Tool_2012_Release_Notes Notes provide information about this release, describe known issues in the tool, and include feedback instructions.

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Update Rollup 8 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3

Update Rollup 8 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 resolves the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

2699574 Microsoft Exchange Information Store service may stop responding when you perform a search on Exchange mailboxes in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2701037 Events 4999 and 7034 are logged and the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes on an Exchange Server 2007 mailbox server

2730089 Microsoft Exchange Information Store service may stop responding when you perform a search on Exchange mailboxes in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2732525 Outlook keeps prompting you for credentials and incorrectly connects to an out-of-site global catalog after you install Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3.

Update Rollup 8 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 also resolves the issue that is described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-058.

For more information about Security Bulletin MS12-058, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 2740358 MS12-058: Vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server WebReady document viewing could allow remote code execution: August 14, 2012

Download

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2 resolves the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles:

2536846 Email messages sent to a mail-enabled public folder may be queued in a delivery queue on the Hub Transport server in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2632409 Sent item is copied to the Sent Items folder of the wrong mailbox in an Exchange Server 2010 environment when a user is granted the Send As permission

2637915 "550 5.7.1" NDR when an email message is sent between tenant organizations in a multi-tenant Exchange Server 2010 environment

2677727 MRM cannot process retention policies on a cloud-based archive mailbox if the primary mailbox is in an on-premises Exchange Server 2010 organization

2685001 Retention policies do not work for the Calendar and Tasks folders in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment

2686540 Journal report is not delivered to a journaling mailbox in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2689025 Performance issues when you use the light version of Outlook Web App in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2698571 Some email messages are not delivered when you set the MessageRateLimit parameter in a throttling policy in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2698899 Add-ADPermission cmdlet together with a DomainController parameter fails in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2700172 Recipient’s email address is resolved incorrectly to a contact’s email address in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2701162 User A that is granted the Full Access permission to User B’s mailbox cannot see detailed free/busy information for User B in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2701624 ItemSubject field is empty when you run the Search-MailboxAuditLog cmdlet together with the ShowDetails parameter in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2702963 The "Open Message In Conflict" button is not available in the conflict notification message in Exchange Server 2010

2707242 The Exchange Information Store service stops responding on an Exchange Server 2010 server

2709014 EdgeTransport.exe process crashes intermittently on an Exchange Server 2010 server

2709935 EdgeTransport.exe process repeatedly crashes on an Exchange Server 2010 server

2713339 Multi-Mailbox Search feature returns incorrect results when you perform a complex discovery search in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2713371 Throttling policy throttles all EWS applications in Exchange Server 2010

2719894 The Microsoft Exchange RPC Client Access service consumes 100 percent of CPU resources and stops responding on an Exchange Server 2010 Client Access server

2723383 Incorrect time zone in a notification when the Resource Booking Attendant declines a meeting request from a user in a different time zone in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2724188 A subject that contains colons is truncated in a mixed Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2010 environment

726897 Event 14035 or Event 1006 is logged when Admin sessions are exhausted in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2 also resolves the issue that is described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-058.
For more information about Security Bulletin MS12-058, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

2740358 MS12-058: Vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server WebReady document viewing could allow remote code execution: August 14, 2012

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