Tag: Vista

An update is available for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS hosts to support Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

This update extends the Key Management Service (KMS) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to allow enterprise licensing of Windows 8 and of Windows Server 2012.
KMS provides support for the following KMS client activations:

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
  • Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
  • Windows 8
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows 7 and Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
  • Windows Vista and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Key Management Service (KMS) uses a KMS host key to activate KMS on a KMS host, and to establish a local activation service in your environment. This update extends support for KMS to provide activation for Windows 8 and for Windows Server 2012.

Download

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Update 1

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Update 1 is the newest version of MDT, a Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment. MDT 2012 Update 1 supports deployment of Windows 8, Windows 7, Office 2010 and 365, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2008 R2 in addition to deployment of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.

Some of the key changes in MDT 2012 Update 1 are:

  • Added support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.
  • Support for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 CTP: Added support in MDT for deploying Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 with Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 CTP, while supporting all new Configuration Manager functionality (offline BitLocker, UEFI, and Assessment and Deployment Kit).
  • Support for DaRT 8 Beta: Updated MDT to support DaRT 8 for Windows 8 deployments, while continuing to support DaRT 7 for Windows 7 deployments. Added DaRT support for Configuration Manager scenarios.
  • New “Build Your Own Pages” User-Driven Installation (UDI) feature: Enhanced the UDI wizard and designer to enable IT pros to design their own wizard pages with little effort.
  • New System Center 2012 – Orchestrator support: Provided the ability to add steps into an OS deployment task sequence to execute Orchestrator runbooks as part of the deployment process.
  • Other improvements: Added support for Windows PowerShell 3.0, reworked Roles and Features installation logic for Windows 8, improved “boot from VHD” deployment scenarios, and added support for Configuration Manager monitoring.

Download

Optimizing Windows 7 Images for use in VDI

One of our MCS deployment guys in the UK – Jonathan Bennett (you may know Jonathan as the author of the autoit tools and GImageX) has developed a tool for configuring Windows 7/Windows Vista/Server 2008 images for use in a VDI environment. The tool called VDI Optimizer outputs a VBScript (based on the selections you make in the GUI interface), which can then be used to apply performance and configuration settings to images that will be deployed via VDI platforms – this is particularly useful if you are using MDT 2010 for your image engineering process as the VBScript can bolted into the task sequence using a Run Command Line task.

image

You can make machine based selections for turning off services and functions that may not be required when the operating system is running in a VDI environment such as hibernation, system restore, and background defrag, as well as adjusting some user based settings such as visual effects, font smoothing and off-screen composition for Internet Explorer.

The beta of this tool is available from http://www.autoitscript.com/files/tools/VDIOptimizer.zip but please remember The tool is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation.

Source: Optimizing Windows 7 images for use in VDI

VMware Workstation 8

What’s New

This release of VMware Workstation adds the following new features and support.

Installation Changes and Enhanced Keyboards

The hardware requirements to install this version of Workstation have changed. Workstation now requires a relatively modern 64-bit CPU. See Installation Requirements for details.

The keyboard filter driver is no longer installed by default. When the driver is not installed, the enhanced keyboard functionality is unavailable and you must press Ctrl-Alt-Ins instead of Ctrl-Alt-Del to send a Ctrl-Alt-Del keystroke to the guest. To use the enhanced keyboard functionality, you must perform a custom installation and select the component. If you select the component, you must reboot whenever you install or uninstall Workstation.

Virtual Hardware Improvements

This version of Workstation includes many hardware improvements. To try new hardware features, you must upgrade the hardware version of your virtual machine or create a new virtual machine that uses the latest virtual hardware version.

  • The display technology has been changed to provide a better experience for Unity users and users who have multiple monitors. These changes also allow you to add a projector to your laptop without restarting your virtual machine.
  • Virtual machines can now support up to 64GB of memory. The host system should have more than 64GB of memory to use this feature.
  • An HD Audio device is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2 guests. The HD Audio device is compatible with the RealTek ALC888 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec.
  • USB 3.0 support is available for Linux guests running kernel version 2.6.35 or later (Ubuntu 10.10) through a new virtual xHCI USB controller. To enable this feature, add the following line to the .vmx file: usb_xhci.present = “true”. Do not enable this feature for Windows guests. Because Windows does not currently have a generic xHCI driver, this feature will not work in Windows.
  • Bluetooth devices on the host can now be shared with Windows guests. With the latest hardware version, Bluetooth devices that are paired to the host system radio are available to Windows guests and can be paired from within the guest. You should not pair Bluetooth audio devices, such as headphones, or Bluetooth input devices, such as keyboards and mice, to a guest.
  • You can now enable Virtual VT-X/EPT or AMD-V/RVI in the processor settings interface. With this feature, applications running in a guest can take advantage of these virtualization technologies. You can also run 64-bit guest operating systems inside of vSphere running inside Workstation.
New User Interface

The Workstation user interface has been updated to include new menus, toolbars, and an improved preferences screen.

  • The favorites sidebar has been replaced with a virtual machine library. Instead of identifying every virtual machine created in Workstation as a favorite, the library is a comprehensive list of all of the virtual machines that Workstation users create, open, or access.
  • A new folder summary page helps you to better manage a group of related virtual machines. Live thumbnails make it easy to see what is happening in running virtual machines.
  • The full screen toolbar has been updated so that you can do more without having to leave full screen mode. Quick switch mode is no longer needed.
What Happened to Teams?

Although at first it might appear that the teams feature has been removed, you can add team attributes to any virtual machine in this version of Workstation.

  • The team structure has been converted to a simple folder of virtual machines.
  • A new advanced settings dialog box has been added for network adapters to let you throttle the bandwidth of incoming and outgoing transmissions and simulate packet loss.
  • You can perform power operations on several virtual machines at the same time by selecting virtual machines on the folder tab and pressing the power button on the toolbar. If all of the virtual machines in a folder are in the same power state, you can select the folder to perform a power operation on all of the virtual machines in the folder.
  • You use a global Workstation preference to configure the delay between powering on virtual machines.
  • To implement LAN segments, you can use traditional VMnets or put all of the virtual machines that you want to communicate on the same custom VMnet.
Shared Virtual Machines and AutoStart

You can share virtual machines with remote users in this version of Workstation. A shared virtual machine can be accessed remotely by other instances of Workstation. Workstation moves virtual machines to the shared virtual machines folder, where the VMware Host Agent service manages them. The VMware Host Agent service is used by other VMware products, including VMware Server and vSphere, and provides additional capabilities required by professional users. An extensive permissions interface lets you control the users who can access and use shared virtual machines.

You can use the new AutoStart feature to configure shared virtual machines to start with the host system. You can also configure AutoStart for shared virtual machines on remote hosts running Workstation and ESX 4.x and later.

Remote Connections

In this version of Workstation, you are no longer constrained to working only with virtual machines that your computer has enough power to run. You can use the new Connect to Server feature to connect to remote hosts running Workstation, ESX 4.x and later, and VMware vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote host, all of the virtual machines that you have permission to access are displayed in the virtual machine library.

Upload to ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server

VMware OVF Tool is now integrated with Workstation so that you can upload a virtual machine from Workstation to a remote server running ESX, ESXi, or vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote server, you drag the virtual machine from the local My Computer section of the virtual machine library to the remote server. A wizard walks you through the process.

Documentation Changes

This version of Workstation includes several important documentation changes.

(NEW) Getting Started with VMware Workstation
Describes how to install and upgrade Workstation, create a typical virtual machine, and perform common virtual machine operations.

Using VMware Workstation
(previously VMware Workstation User’s Guide)
Describes how to create typical, custom, and shared virtual machines, add virtual devices, configure network connections, connect to remote servers and use remote virtual machines, upload virtual machines to remote servers, and perform all virtual machine operations.

Getting Started with VMware Player
(previously VMware Player Getting Started Guide)
Now contains complete information on installing and using Player.

Online help
Has been redesigned to provide context-sensitive help and information on performing common tasks. For complete information on using Workstation and Player, see the guides.

(NEW) Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
Contains comprehensive information on installing, upgrading, and configuring VMware Tools.

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Installation Requirements

When you install Workstation, the installer performs checks to make sure the host system has a processor that meets the following requirements. You cannot install Workstation if the host system does not meet these requirements.

  • 64-bit x86 CPU
  • LAHF/SAHF support in long mode

You can use CPU-Z or a similar utility to determine if the host system CPU is 64-bit capable. CPU-Z shows EM64T (Intel) or AMD64 (AMD) if the processor is 64-bit capable.

If you plan to install a 64-bit guest operating system in a virtual machine, the host system must have one of the following processors. Workstation will not allow you to install a 64-bit guest operating system if the host system does not have one of these processors.

  • AMD CPU that has segment-limit support in long mode.
  • Intel CPU that has VT-x support. VT-x support must be enabled in the host system BIOS. The BIOS settings that must be enabled for VT-x support vary depending on the system vendor. See VMware KB article 1003944 for information on how to determine if VT-x support is enabled.

Top of Page

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows:

Remote Connection and Remote Virtual Machine Issues
  • When Workstation is installed on a Linux host, VMware Workstation Server writes the core file to /usr/bin instead of to /var/core or /var/log/vmware.
  • You cannot use Workstation to create a remote virtual machine on an ESX or ESXi 4.1 host if the virtual machine name contains non-ASCII characters.
  • When you upload a virtual machine to a remote server (VM > Manage > Upload), Workstation modifies the MAC address and PCI slot number of the virtual Ethernet device in the newly created remote virtual machine. Network errors can occur in the remote virtual machine if the network settings in the guest operating system require the original network hardware configuration.
    Workaround: Change the network settings in the guest operating system in the remote virtual machine to match the new network hardware configuration.
  • VMware Workstation Server occasionally crashes on a 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x host.
Role and Permission Issues
  • On a Windows host, if you edit a permission, assign the Administrator role, and then immediately click Remove to delete the permission, the original permission still exists when you reopen the Permissions dialog box.
Shared Virtual Machine Issues
  • On Windows hosts, if a shared virtual machine has a floppy drive that is configured to connect at power on, and a remote user powers on the virtual machine, a dialog box appears on the host system asking whether to connect the device every time the virtual machine powers on. If you click Yes to close the dialog box on the host system after the virtual machine is completely up and running on the host system, Workstation crashes on the host system.
  • On a 32 or 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 2008 R2, or 32-bit Windows XP Professional SP3 host, if you uninstall Workstation, preserve the configuration, and then reinstall Workstation to a different path, the Shared VMs item is unavailable in the virtual machine library.
  • On a Windows host, if you create a virtual machine with a name that contains non-ASCII characters in the New Virtual Machine wizard, you cannot share the virtual machine with the Move the virtual machine option if the destination path is other than the system operating system location. The sharing process stops with the error message Failed to move VM to destination path.
    Workaround: If you want to share the virtual machine, you must use only ASCII characters in the virtual machine name when you create the virtual machine in the New Virtual Machine wizard.
Display and Input Issues
  • On an Ubuntu 11.04 host, the virtual machine icon does not appear on the system tray when you set the Show tray icon setting (Edit > Preferences > Workspace) to Always or When a virtual machine is powered on.
    Workaround: Whitelist vmware-tray as an application that can show system tray icons in Ubuntu 11.04. Alternatively, enable Notification Area (Systray) for all applications, for example:
    gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"
    After you run the command, log out and log back in. The command can take several minutes to take effect.
  • On a Fedora 15 host, powering on a virtual machine that has DirectX 9 accelerated graphics enabled might fail with the error "Unable to change virtual machine power state: Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to."
    Workaround: Deselect the Accelerate 3D graphics setting (VM > Settings > Hardware > Display) to disable DirectX 9 accelerated graphics in the virtual machine.
  • When you enter Unity mode in an Ubuntu 11.04 guest, application menus do not appear for applications that were opened before entering Unity mode. Application menus do appear for applications that are opened from the Unity launch menu after entering Unity mode.
    Workaround: Disable the APPMENU (Global menu) in the Ubuntu 11.04 guest. See the Ubuntu documentation for more information.
  • After you upload a Windows XP virtual machine from the local host to a remote server, you cannot autofit the guest in full screen mode. This problem occurs because VRAM is reduced to 4 MB when the virtual machine is uploaded to the remote server.
Folder and Team Conversion Issues
  • When you select a newly created folder in the Workstation library, the toolbar power option button is dimmed and you cannot perform batch power operations on the virtual machines in the folder.
    Workaround: If you select a virtual machine in the folder, move the selection off the virtual machine (for example, click anywhere on the folder tab), and then select the folder in the library again, the toolbar power option button becomes available.
Device Issues
  • On Windows hosts, Player crashes if you click Connect or Disconnect in the Removable Devices menu before the console appears.
  • An Ubuntu 11.04 host might crash when you try to connect a USB device to a running virtual machine from the status bar icon’s context menu. This problem typically occurs after Workstation is freshly installed, the host is rebooted, and the first time the device is connected to the virtual machine.
Physical Machine Virtualization Issues
  • When simple file sharing or UAC is enabled on the physical machine, the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard returns an "incorrect user credentials" error instead of an error message that indicates simple file sharing or UAC must be disabled before virtualizing the physical machine. See the online help or Using VMware Workstation for information on preparing a physical machine for virtualization.
  • You cannot use the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard if the Workstation installation path contains non-ASCII characters.

System Center Operations Manager 2012 Beta is released

Overview

System Center Operations Manager 2012 provides the monitoring component of cloud and datacenter solutions, to help you manage your datacenter and cloud environments by:

  • Delivering flexible and cost effective enterprise-class monitoring and diagnostics while reducing the total cost of ownership by leveraging commodity hardware, with standard configurations to monitor heterogeneous environments.
  • Helping to ensure the availability of business-critical applications and services through market-leading .NET application performance monitoring and diagnostics plus JEE application health monitoring.
  • Providing a comprehensive view of datacenters, and private and public clouds.

Feature Summary

  • Predictable performance and availability of critical applications
    • End-to-end views of application health and topology
    • Establishment of application service-level delivery (SLAs)
    • Precise identification of application errors
  • Flexible and cost-effective infrastructure monitoring
    • In-depth monitoring, diagnostics, and reporting for heterogeneous environments
    • Integrated network device monitoring and alerts
    • Simplified management infrastructure
  • Comprehensive monitoring for your datacenter and cloud—on your terms
    • Integrated physical, virtual, and cloud management
    • Common console across datacenter and clouds
    • Rich reporting

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3

  • Other Software:
    • Any server role
      • .NET 3.5 or 4.0
    • Management Server, Reporting Server, Web Console, Gateway Server
      • Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit)
    • Operational & Data Warehouse
      • SQL 2008 SP1 and above
      • SQL Collation – SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
    • Agent
      • Windows Server 2003 SP2 and above
      • Windows Server 2008 SP2 and above
      • Windows Server 2008 R2
      • Windows XP Professional SP3 and above
      • Windows Vista SP2 and above
      • Windows 7

    Supported Hardware Configuration:

    • Operations Manager Operations database: 4 GB of RAM or higher, 50 GB of available hard disk space
    • Management server: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Operations console: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Reporting data warehouse: 4 GB of RAM or more, 100 GB of available hard disk space
    • Reporting server: 2 GB or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • gateway server: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Web console server: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Audit database: 4 GB of RAM or more, 100 GB of available hard disk space
    • Management server with audit collector: 2 GB of RAM or more, 50 GB of available hard disk space
    • Management server with Agentless Exception Monitoring file share: 2 GB of RAM or more, 30 GB of available hard disk space
    • Agent: Please refer to the recommended hardware requirement required by the operating system.

Download the beta HERE

GAL Photos in Exchange 2010 and Outlook 2010

With Microsoft Exchange 2010 and Outlook 2010 & Lync & Sharepoint 2010 you can finally get photos into your global address list (GAL) and see just who’s who on your emails. You can do this on 2 way’s

1. Using Powershell Smile

    A minor schema change

    First stop, the AD Schema. A minor schema modification is required to flip the thumbnailPhoto attribute to make it replicate to the Global Catalog.

    1. If you haven’t registered the Schema MMC snap-in on the server you want to make this change on, go ahead and do so using the following command:

      Regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll

    2. Fire up a MMC console (Start -> Run -> MMC) and add the Schema snap-in

    3. In the Active Directory Schema snap-in, expand the Attributes node, and then locate the thumbnailPhoto attribute. (The Schema snap-in lists attributes by its ldapDisplayName).

    4. In the Properties page, select Replicate this attribute to the Global Catalog, and click OK.

      Figure 1: Modifying the thumbnailPhoto attribute to replicate it to Global Catalog

      Loading pictures into Active Directory

      Now you can start uploading pictures to Active Directory using the Import-RecipientDataProperty cmdlet, as shown in this example:

      Import-RecipientDataProperty -Identity "Ward VIssers" -Picture -FileData ([Byte[]]$(Get-Content -Path "C:\pictures\wardvissers.jpg" -Encoding Byte -ReadCount 0))

      To perform a bulk operation you can use the Get-Mailbox cmdlet with your choice of filter (or use the Get-DistributionGroupMember cmdlet if you want to do this for members of a distribution group), and pipe the mailboxes to a foreach loop. You can also retrieve the user name and path to the thumbnail picture from a CSV/TXT file.

      2. Using a Free tool like Outlook Photos from Exclaimer

      Download the Tool HERE

      The tool is easy to use Smile.

      Prerequisites

      User Preferences

        Domain user – The logged in user’ account is required to be an Active Directory account.

        Domain computer – The computer the user is logged into needs to be joined to an Active
        Directory domain.

        Active Directory permissions – The logged in user must have permission to upload photos to the required Active Directory accounts. (Alternate credentials can be supplied or control of the thumbnailPhoto field can be delegated to the logged in user.)

      Operating System

      • Windows Server 2003 x86 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Server 2003 R2 x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Server 2008 x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Server 2008 R2 x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Small Business Server 2003 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Small Business Server 2008.
      • Windows Small Business Server 2011.
      • Windows XP x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Vista x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows 7 x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).

      Other Software

      Microsoft Outlook 2010 x86 and x64

      Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

      Microsoft Exchange 2010 RTM and above

      Active Directory

      You must be logged into an Active Directory domain to run the application.

      Active Directory Forest
      Domain and Forest functional level of Windows Server 2008 and above.
      For Domain or Forest functional level of Windows Server 2003, the Windows Server 2008 Forest preparation must first be complete.

      Screenshots

        image image

      Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.5

      The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) 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 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.

      MAP helps make the following IT planning projects faster and easier:

      • Migration to Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Office 2010
      • Migration to Windows 7 compatible versions of Internet Explorer
      • Migration to cloud-based services
      • Server virtualization with Hyper-V
      • SQL Server consolidation and migration to SQL Server 2008 R2
      • Assessment of current software usage and client access history for simplified software asset management
      • PC security assessment and migration to Microsoft Forefront Client Security

      You can use MAP to inventory the following technologies:

      • Windows 7
      • Windows Vista
      • Windows XP Professional
      • Office 2010 and previous versions
      • Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
      • Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2
      • Windows 2000 Professional or Windows 2000 Server
      • VMware ESX
      • VMware ESXi
      • VMware Server
      • Linux variants
      • LAMP application stack discovery
      • SQL Server 2008
      • SQL Server 2008 R2
      • MySQL
      • Oracle
      • Sybase

      Download MAP 5.5 HERE

      Exchange 2010 SP1 Prerequisites

      Some day’s ago Microsoft Releases Exchange 2010 SP1. When you install Exchange 2010 SP1 you need to install some hotfixes. The Exchange Team have made a nice over view witch hotfixes you need for the OS.

      Hotfix Download Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows 7 & Windows Vista
      979744
      A .NET Framework 2.0-based Multi-AppDomain application stops responding when you run the application      		 MSDN
      or Microsoft Connect      		 Windows6.0-KB979744-x64.msu (CBS: Vista/Win2K8) Windows6.1-KB979744-x64.msu (CBS: Win7/Win2K8 R2) N. A.
      983440
      An ASP.NET 2.0 hotfix rollup package is available for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2      		 Request from CSS Yes Yes N.A.
      977624
      AD RMS clients do not authenticate federated identity providers in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista. Without this update, Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) features may stop working      		 Request from CSS using the “View and request hotfix downloads” link in the KBA | US-English Select the download for Windows Vista for the x64 platform. N.A. N.A.
      979917
      Two issues occur when you deploy an ASP.NET 2.0-based application on a server that is running IIS 7.0 or IIS 7.5 in Integrated mode      		 Request from CSS using the Hotfix Request Web Submission Form or by phone (no charge) Yes N. A. N. A.
      973136,
      FIX: ArgumentNullException exception error message when a .NET Framework 2.0 SP2-based application tries to process a response with zero-length content to an asynchronous ASP.NET Web service request: “Value cannot be null”.      		 Microsoft Connect Windows6.0-KB973136-x64.msu N.A. N. A.
      977592
      RPC over HTTP clients cannot connect to the Windows Server 2008 RPC over HTTP servers that have RPC load balancing enabled.      		 Request from CSS Select the download for Windows Vista (x64) N.A. N. A.
      979099
      An update is available to remove the application manifest expiry feature from AD RMS clients.      		 Download Center N. A. Windows6.1-KB979099-x64.msu N. A.
      982867

      WCF services that are hosted by computers together with a NLB fail in .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

      		 MSDN N. A. Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x64.msu (Win7) X86: Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x86.msu (Win7)
      x64: Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x64.msu (Win7)
      977020
      FIX: An application that is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 and that invokes a Web service call asynchronously throws an exception on a computer that is running Windows 7.      		 Microsoft Connect N. A. N. A. x64: Windows6.1-KB977020-v2-x64.msu

      X86: Windows6.1-KB977020-v2-x86.msu

      Some of the hotfixes would have been rolled up in a Windows update or service pack. Given that the Exchange team released SP1 earlier than what was planned and announced earlier, it did not align with some of the work with the Windows platform. As a result, some hotfixes are available from MSDN/Connect, and some require that you request them online using the links in the corresponding KBs. All these updates may become available on the Download Center, and also through Windows Update.

      These hotfixes have been tested extensively as part of Exchange 2010 SP1 deployments within Microsoft and by our TAP customers. They are fully supported by Microsoft.

      The TechNet article Exchange 2010 Prerequisites is updated with the hotfixes and install the prerequisites required for your server version (the hotfixes are linked to in the above table).

      You can use the Install the Windows Server 2008 SP2 operating system prerequisites on a Windows 2008 R2 server. Only you have to run the following powershell command: Import-Module ServerManager

      Installed Exchange 2010 SP1 on a Windows 2008 R2 Server with problems. I feels that the MMC is faster. Tomorrow upgrading a DAG/NLB cluster to Exchange 2010 SP1.

      Reviewing Least Privilege Security for Windows 7, Vista and XP

      I was recently approached to do a book review on “Least Privilege Security for Windows 7,Vista and XP by Russell Smith” published by Packt Publishing. I will review it soon. It show you how to configure your Windows environment so that your users can operate without administrator permissions.

      Here is a list of the just some of technologies that this book talks about to achieve a Least Privilege Security:

      • Program Compatibility Wizard
      • Applications Compatibility Wizard
      • User Account Control
      • Group Policy Software Deployment
      • Internet Explorer Add-on Management
      • Troubleshooting Remote Users
      • Configuring Windows Firewall
      • Software Restrictions Policies and AppLocker
      • Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
      • CD Burning
      • ActiveX Controls
      • Changing system time and time zones
      • Power Management
      • Managing networks
      • Standard Users Analyzer
      • Applications Compatibility Toolkit
      • Logon Scripts
      • Remote Desktop Services
      • App-V
      • Med-V

      I have read already some chapters. I think it is a great book to have on your collection.
      You have always not enough time thinking about security. This book does it for you.

      As a special offer Packt Publishing are also letting people download preview chapter of this book by download here Chapter No. 3 – Solving Least privilege Problems with the Application Compatibility Toolkit

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      VMware Workstation 7.1 is available

      VMWare has released VMware Workstation 7.1.

      image

      What’s New in VMware Workstation 7.1

    1. Support for 8 virtual processors (or 8 virtual cores) and 2 TB virtual disks.
    2. Support for OpenGL 2.1 for Windows Vista and Windows 7 guests.
    3. Greatly improved DirectX 9.0 graphics performance for Windows Vista and Windows 7 guests. Up to 2x faster than Workstation 7.
    4. Launch virtualized applications directly from the Windows 7 taskbar to create a seamless experience between applications in your virtual machines and the desktop.
    5. Optimized performance for Intel’s Core i3, i5, i7 processor family for faster virtual machine encryption and decryption.
    6. Support for more Host and Guest Operating Systems, including: Hosts: Windows 2008 R2, Ubuntu 10.04, RHEL 5.4, and more Guests: Fedora 12, Ubuntu 10.04, RHEL 5.4, SEL 11 SP1, and more.
    7. Now includes built in Automatic Updates feature to check, download, and install VMware Workstation updates.
    8. Ability to import and export Open Virtualization Format (OVF 1.0) packaged virtual machines and upload directly to VMware vSphere, the industry’s best platform for building cloud infrastructures.

      Download VMware Workstation HERE. You need a valid VMware Account to download.

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