Olympic Games aren't a place to try new technologies, Chinese officials say

Source : http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9029658&source=rss_topic79

 

August 08, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- BEIJING -- Microsoft Corp.'s newest operating system, Vista, has been relegated to waterboy status at the 2008 Olympic Games, while wireless networking won't even play a supporting role in Beijing.

Windows XP was chosen to run on all PCs handling chores vital to the Olympic Games and has been installed on most of the PCs delivered by Lenovo Group Ltd. Vista will be used only on PCs in Internet lounges set up for athletes to use during the games.

The Olympic Games require mature, stable technologies, said Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo, during a briefing in Beijing. The Olympic Games aren't a place to try new technologies because of the size and importance of the event, he said. Everything must work smoothly.

"If it's not stable, it could have some problems," he said.

That's why all the Olympic Games' vital PC-related tasks, including games management systems, results systems, commentator information systems, and staff and scheduling systems, will run on XP.

Wireless networking has also been deemed too risky for the 2008 Olympics. There will be no wireless used among the core systems of the Olympic Games, said Leon Xie, director of Olympic technology and sponsorship at Lenovo. All networking will take place over wire lines, including the backup system.

"At the Olympics, we need the most reliable and stable system," he said.

The games, whose official one-year countdown began today, is a massive event. It will require four times as much IT hardware as the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy, Xie said.

Lenovo, the official computing sponsor of the games, has already delivered 12,000 desktop PCs and 2,000 printers to the organizers in Beijing, in addition to 800 laptops and 700 servers. Another 5,000 PCs were sent over for the athlete's lounges and other hospitality and marketing purposes.

The desktop systems include mainly Lenovo ThinkCentre M55s, while the laptops include both ThinkPad T60s and Zhaoyang 680s. The server systems include SureServer models T350, R630 and R520.

All software and other IT choices made for the games came from The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Xie said.

 

Microsoft Acquires Engyro Corporation

 

About Engyro

About Engyro Engyro Corporation provides software solutions that help organizations integrate, consolidate and simplify their IT operations. Our extensive experience in enterprise management, and our unique focus on integrating multiple lines of management systems, tools and applications benefits our customers around the world who use our software everyday.

So more free managemen packs would come from here. you can see what MP engyro made for mom in the management catalog.

http://www.engyro.com/media/press-releases/2007/060107.php

http://www.systemcenterforum.org/microsoft-acquires-engyro-corporation/

Microsoft Corporation is excited to announce the acquisition of Engyro Corporation, maker of system management interoperability solutions.

• Microsoft Acquires Engyro Corporation
• Merger Agreement FAQ

"We are very pleased with the acquisition of Engyro by Microsoft as it provides significant benefit to Engyro and Microsoft customers. This acquisition will permit Operations Manager customers to use best of breed management for their Microsoft technologies while leveraging their prior investment in legacy management systems.” Jim Dennedy, Engyro President and CEO.

Source : http://www.weblog.stranger.nl/dutch_system_center_user_group_online

 

This weekend we (Maarten Goet, Arie de Haan and stefan stranger) got the Dutch System Center User Group webserver online with the help of our hosting party Luppie.net! This is the first of our Dutch System Center User Group plans we have. The official start of SCUG will be during the Dutch Technet Live event in Amsterdam at the 18th of June.

So if you Dutch or can read it you are more then welcome to visit us at our booth at Technet Live or go to our website for the latest news about SCUG

great stuff boys

http://scug.nl/default.aspx

http://www.weblog.stranger.nl/

http://www.techlog.nl/

 

 

 

The last few day's I saw this wsus client thing SVChost.exe / wsus client problem on my network.

use the sysinternal/microsoft tools process explore. Sure there is a patch but wil it work...

or http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

 

With te process explore you can see the cpu goes to 100% suddenly... great stuff a patch for a patch problem.

So how do we fix this. >< http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a81b0cd-a0b9-497e-8a89-404327772e5a&DisplayLang=en 

 

WindowsXP-KB927891-v3-x86-ENU.exe use the right  Language !

Than we can use SMS or MOM to deploy the Patch.

But if you don't have this an easy batch file can be used :

option 1

 

If EXIST %windir%\KB927891.txt goto End
\\your domain\netlogon\robocopy.exe \\domain\netlogon\ "c:\temp" WindowsXP-KB927891-v3-x86-ENU.exe /is /tee /ndl /njs /njh
"c:\temp\WindowsXP-KB927891-v3-x86-ENU.exe" /quiet /norestart /log:%windir%\KB927891.txt
:end

 

or just use psexec -i \\machine name c:\c:\temp\WindowsXP-KB927891-v3-x86-ENU.exe /quiet /norestart

you must copy the file first to the desktop

 

But after this will it work ??? I'm still testing to soon to tell. but read this

 

 

Microsoft's fix for Automatic Updates lockup not working

 

A hotfix, updated just yesterday, is available on the Microsoft support site. The patch will be pushed out via Microsoft's usual update services, including Windows Update and Microsoft Update, late this month or in early June, said a developer on the WSUS blog. However, the fix can be downloaded and installed manually on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems.

Users will also need to download and install the new stand-alone WSUS 3.0 client -- even those who don't rely on the enterprise-centric WSUS for updates -- to completely patch the problem. "It's important to keep in mind that the new WSUS client is only a partial solution and clients must have both KB927891 and the new 3.0 client installed for a full solution," the WSUS team blog read.

The new client and the WSUS update to Version 3.0 will be available to WSUS on May 22. Like the hotfix, the client can also be downloaded manually and installed now. Instructions and a link to the download have been posted to the MSDN (Microsoft Developers Network) site.

Yesterday and today, however, users poured out their frustration on the WSUS blog after installing the hotfix and updating the WSUS client. "I installed both WindowsXP-KB927891-v3-x86 and WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86 on Windows XP SP2 boxes configured to get updates from a WSUS 2.0 server. The problem still exists," said Summit Tuladhar in a comment to the blog.

"Doesn't appear that the fixes address the issue I experience on multiple machines," said ltpolaris.

"This is clearly a very serious worldwide issue," said Alan O'Riordan. "I will advise the disabling of the Automatic Updates until a clear resolution is found."

"I doubt you'd call what you've cobbed [sic] together a 'fix.' Thanks for nothing," said another user simply labeled jaded_admin. "We are seriously considering a pilot with SLED [SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop] or Ubuntu and OpenOffice now. Your poor workmanship is driving your customers right into the arms of the open-source community."

 IMHO <> I this SLED is not the option if you have already a fine XP network. and it is not the OS that is the problem but the applications this is growing and growing Will this work ..... and how much time will this cost.

Ok the software is free.

If you want to clean up you WSUS DB before you go to use SSUS or LSUS ah hell if you use suse you don't have to patch your OS you don't even have to reboot any more great stuff this Lin*x or Unox. If it is so great why are we still using windows ? more than ever.

I have a blue HAT.

http://blogs.technet.com/bluehat/default.aspx

 

www.aca-computers.nl/MOMMP/Wsus Tools/WsusDBMaintenance.sql

Today we have uploaded a pre-configured VHD that contains SCVMM Beta 2 (and all its prerequisites) to the SCVMM downloads section.
This VHD can be used to easily test/demo SCVMM Beta 2 in your environment. A detailed installation instructions are also included in the download.
Thank you for helping to make our product better.

SCVMM Beta Team

 

 

It's Here: Windows Server Update Services 3.0

 

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 delivers new features including an MMC-based user interface with advanced filtering and reporting, improved performance and operational reliability, flexible deployment options to improve branch office support, and more content access through the Microsoft Update Catalog site.

•	System Requirements
•	Overview
•	Customer Reviews
•	Download WSUS 3.0

 

Windows Server Update Services server

Automatic Updates

 

Check this out New Virtual server images free to use.

 

Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Beta 1 Team Suite (Virtual PC version)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=36b6609e-6f3d-40f4-8c7d-ad111679d8dc&DisplayLang=en

 IE7 Virtual PC Image and IE6 Virtual PC Image Refresh

Just a reminder that both images expire on August 17^th, 2007.

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21EABB90-958F-4B64-B5F1-73D0A413C8EF&displaylang=en

Great news. Longhorn Server Beta 3 has gone public. This is really great news for everyone who wants to TRY NAP NOW!

Here is the ISO download location:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/beta/lhs/default.mspx

I will be posting information about our updated NAP step-by-step guides as soon as possible. We will also be refreshing the XP NAP client soon. Keep your eyes peeled and please enjoy Beta 3.

 

SCVMM Beta 2 is ready for download!

Greetings from Virtual Machine Manager team,

Thank you for your continuous support on our product.

I am happy to announce that SCVMM Beta 2 is ready for download!

Please download and try SCVMM Beta 2 in your test environments, your feedback is critical to make our product better please do send your feedbacks using the feedback functionality in Connect.

We will be answering your questions through our beta newsgroup, please note that we will have "newsgroup only" support for this build. If you haven't already done so you can access the SCVMM beta newsgroup by clicking the Newsgroups link and following the instructions there on VMM Microsoft Connect site.

Before you begin, be sure to read all these updated documents for Beta 2.

Here is another good news just for downloading Beta 2, you will automatically be enrolled in a weekly sweepstakes for an Xbox 360T system*.

This latest version of Virtual Machine Manager - Beta 2 - represents a major step forward in providing IT administrators with a fully featured, easy-to-use and integrated suite of management tools to tackle even the most distributed and complex virtualization migrations. While the improvements in Beta 2 are too long to list, here is a preview of the major upgrades in this release:

·Completely new, easy-to-use and intuitive UI based on the System Center look-and-feel (same as System Center Operations Manager 2007, Service Desk and System Center Essentials)

·Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) Conversions (Windows Server® 2000 or Windows Server 2003 are supported)

·Virtual-to-Virtual (V2V) Conversions - Using the Windows PowerShell® interface, converts a VMWare disk or a whole VM to the analogous VS vhd\vm representation

·64-bit VMM server support

·Every VMM component is now remotely installable, including the VMM server, library server, delegated provisioning portal, administrative console and data store

·Full Windows PowerShell support with documentation - automate away!

·Better overall performance and scalability

·Every feature from Beta 1 with more functionality and enhancements

Microsoft virtualization offers an unparalleled opportunity for IT departments to maximize their hardware resources and become truly operational agile. We invite you to download and evaluate VMM see how your company can benefit from a whole new level of virtual machine management that harnesses this transformative technology. And at the same time, you could walk away with a new Xbox 360!

One off the tools for exchange is ESEUTIL. It is a easy tool to use.

 

Defragment                      /d <database name>  [options]
Recovery                             /r <logfile base name> [options]
Integrity                               /g <Database name> [options]
Checksum                           /k <file name> [options]
Repair                                   /p <database name> [options]
File Dump                            /m[mode-modifier] <filename>
Copy File                              /y <Source file> [options]
Restore                                /c [mode-modifier] <path name> [options]

SEC203  Making the Tradeoff: Be Secure or Get Work Done
Are you the kind of security person who enables a setting just because it's there? Do your users constantly seek ways to bypass all your fine-tuned security, just so they can do their jobs? Every security decision your organization makes ought to consider the security-usability (or even the security-usability-cost) tradeoff. While perfect security seems an admirable goal, in reality we must remember that usability often will trump our strongest desires. If people can't get work done, they'll either circumvent the security (without understanding they just created new attack vectors) or your company will simply lose out to your competitors. Steve Riley discusses several examples of real-world tradeoffs and helps you learn how to navigate the tradeoff in your own organization.

SEC301  The fortified data center in your future: Build it now and they will come
Relax for a moment. Let your mind wander to thoughts of your corporate network—with its myriad authentication schemes, its haphazard collection of client computers in various states of (non)conformance, its proliferation of access methods, its data centers with too many ways in and out. Feel like you want to just burn it all down and start over? Well, perhaps you should—and when you do, you can implement something that’s simpler, more secure, well managed, and less expensive. Over the years, Steve Riley has hinted at this idea, advocating the demise of the traditional corporate network, with its no longer useful distinction between “inside” and “outside.” Instead, organizations should move toward using the Internet as their infrastructure, where all clients and a physically and electronically fortified data center live “live on the ‘net.” The question, then, is how to build this data center? Effective security and management are absolutely essential to realize this vision. Steve will show how combining the Microsoft ForeFront family of security products with the System Center family of management solutions provides the necessary foundation for building your data center of the future—today. Don’t delay, because your business competitors are already doing it!

SEC303  It's 11:00 P.M., Do You Know Where Your Data Is?
Long gone are the days when you knew your data was safe because it resided only in your data center. The explosive proliferation of laptops, notebooks, handheld computers, smartphones, removable drives, and Internet file storage demands that we rethink how we protect information. Because it's the information the bad guys are after, and because the information flows so freely from device to device, our obligation is to protect the information. People want to work wherever they can find a computer and an Internet connection. How can you do this safely? Steve Riley considers strategies and explore technologies to help you solve a number of thorny problems: how to classify mobile data, how to keep track of where it is, and how to control its movement. We explore the new Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs, technical guidance and deployment tools that help you plan and implement EFS and BitLocker throughout your enterprise, with lower cost and extended centralized management and control. One question we will ponder: maybe it's time to do away with the locked-down desktop?

MBL409  Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Security In-Depth
Seems like Windows Mobile 5 came out just the other day, but yes, version 6 is now ready. We listened to your feedback and incorporated several enhancements and new capabilities to make Windows Mobile 6 truly enterprise ready. We take an in-depth look at how Windows Mobile now supports Rights Management Services (enabling you to work with protected Office documents), a new certificate enrollment process, encryption of storage card contents, and more. We also review existing security features that are important for enterprises to understand and implement. Join Steve Riley as he shows you how Windows Mobile 6 can become your trusted platform for secure mobile access to corporate information.

 

Tech·Ed 2007: Turn “doing your job” into “making your mark.”

Tech·Ed 2007, Microsoft’s premier annual conference* for IT Pros and Developers is dedicated to providing technical training, information and resources to help you maximize your Microsoft investment. For five days in June, you will interact with experts, collaborate among peers and engage in trainings focused on Microsoft’s innovative technologies to move your business forward. Let this year’s Tech·Ed be your first step to “making your mark” which you can draw from long after Tech·Ed is over.

http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2007/default.mspx

Login to Tech·Ed Connect and Get Connected Today!

Simply enter the User Name and Password you established when you registered and start using this system today.

http://teched2007.leveragesoftware.com/

 

 

Submitted by Stefan on Tue, 03/04/2007 - 12:50. Microsoft | MOM 2005 | OpsMgr 2007 | SCOM 2007

It's official today I got the next email from Microsoft.

"Dear Stefan Stranger,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2007 Microsoft® MVP Award!

The Microsoft MVP Award is our way of saying thank you and to honor and support the significant contributions you make to communities worldwide. As a recipient of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional award, you join an elite group of technical community leaders from around the world who foster the free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing your real world expertise with users and Microsoft.  Microsoft salutes all MVPs for promoting the spirit of community and enhancing people’s lives and the industry’s success everyday.  To learn more about the MVP Program, visit: www.microsoft.com/mvp.

Your extraordinary efforts in Windows Server System - MOM technical communities during the past year are greatly appreciated. The benefits you will enjoy as a recipient of the MVP Award are outlined below."

I already got some emails and text messages from others congratulating me with the MVP award, but I had not received any official confirmation yet. So I thought it was a delayed Aprils Fools' Day joke, but that was not the case ;-)

What can I say? I'll do my best to keep contributing to the community. Keep a close watch at the Dutch System Center User Group. Thanks to all who nominated me!

Regards,
Stefan Stranger
http://weblog.stranger.nl

To day I got this email from my PerformancePoint Server 2007 Community Technology Preview (CTP)

 

We are proud to announce the release of Microsoft Office
PerformancePoint Server 2007 CTP2 software! You can download the files
within the "Download" section of Microsoft Connect
(https://connect.microsoft.com/default.aspx
<https://connect.microsoft.com/default.aspx> ). We encourage all CTP
members to actively use the newsgroups and feedback section for
assistance and to provide feedback/submit bugs regarding the CTP2
software release. Additional product information about Office
PerformancePoint Server 2007 can be found at
www.microsoft.com/performancepoint
<http://www.microsoft.com/performancepoint> .

Newsgroups

You will now have access to two newsgroups:

Microsoft.beta.office.performancepoint.monitoranalyze (Concerto and
Proclarity questions)

Microsoft.beta.office.performancepoint.planning (Biz# questions)

The first newsgroup, for monitoring and analytic questions, will be
replacing the previously established "Concerto" newsgroups. For those
that have already signed up to participate in this newsgroup the changes
should take no more then four simple steps. Within Outlook Express
select Tools, Newsgroups, click on
Microsoft.beta.office.performancepoint.monitoranalyze and then
subscribe. For those that have yet to sign up for the newsgroups, please
follow the directions found on the Microsoft Connect site, under
"Newsgroups" to add this new account to your newsgroup reader.

The second newsgroup, for planning questions, will be replacing the
previously established "Biz #" newsgroups. For those that have already
signed up to participate in this newsgroup the changes should take no
more then four simple steps. Within Outlook Express select Tools,
Newsgroups, click on Microsoft.beta.office.performancepoint.planning and
then subscribe. For those that have yet to sign up for the newsgroups,
please follow the directions found on the Microsoft Connect site, under
"Newsgroups" to add this new account to your newsgroup reader.

We look forward to your feedback,
The PerformancePoint Server 2007 CTP Team

 

 

Microsoft is building a new managed services solution to enable partners to create a services-based business by delivering remote IT managed services to small and midsized organizations. Supported by System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Operations Manager 2007) and System Center Essentials 2007 (SCE 2007) technology, this combined solution creates a powerful platform with which you can provide remote software update management, monitoring and troubleshooting of customer environments over a secure internet connection. In addition, you will be able to create customized reports to show your customers the value of the services you provide.

Register for the beta

System Center Capacity Planner 2007 helps you size and plan deployments of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and System Center Operations Manager 2007. SCCP 2007 uses transaction models of the applications and includes their respective best practices.

Register for the beta

System Center code name “Service Desk” links IT to the business by enabling IT organizations to respond to changing business needs while delivering reliable and cost-effective IT services. “Service Desk” is an extensible platform that delivers out-of-box workflows to automate IT operations around incident and problem resolution, IT change control, and asset lifecycle management. Leveraging a model-based CMDB, “Service Desk” complements Configuration Manager and Operations Manager by serving as the central hub through which all IT assets and processes are tracked, playing a critical role in driving the value of IT services to the business.

Register for the Beta

 

Yes it is here Windows 2003 Service pack 2; worked on my servers

 

Windows Server 2003 with SP2
Windows Server 2003 R2 with SP2
Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions with SP2
Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Editions with SP2
Windows Server 2003 for Itanium-based Systems with SP2
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition with SP2

SP2 (32-bit x86)

SP2 for x64 Editions

SP2 for Itanium-based Systems

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 32-bit Support Tools

System Preparation tool for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Deployment

System Preparation tool for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Deployment (x64)

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 MUI Pack (32-bit x86) Update

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 MUI Pack Update for x64 Editions

 

The guy's from log-in Consultants have released the first version of "Softgrid migration tool express "

 

This is a easy tool to use to convert a MSI package to a softgrid sequence.

 

Get it here : http://www.loginconsultants.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=10&Itemid=62

 

 

  

What is TAP?

 

I had this question a lot after the post from the ISA 2007 Tap. And microsoft offers more and more TAP programs.

But what is a TAP program. 

 

The Technology Adoption Program (TAP) at Microsoft® is designed to provide a consistent experience for customers partnering with Microsoft in obtaining real world customer feedback on Microsoft pre-release products. Participating customers find that some of the most powerful benefits include:

§          Product team engineering

§          help in deploying their Microsoft solutions.

§          Early product education.

§          An opportunity to influence product through their feedback.

§          The strategic edge all this can give them in their line of business.

 

TAP (Technology Adoption Program) is a framework that has been created to rationalize, simplify and centralize the former JDP (Joint Development Program), EAP (Early Adopter Program, RDP (Rapid Deployment Program) and related programs under a single umbrella.  The goal is to improve customer/partner experiences in evaluating and adopting our technologies and improve our ability to track and manage customer/partner relationships across programs. TAP is not an additional program. There are currently four different types of TAPs (Product Validation, Product Evaluation, Rapid Deployment and Solutions Implementation) in the framework.

TAP Benefits for Customers (businesses)

§          Agreement

o         Single legal agreement for all programs under TAP

o         Only 7 pages, clear language

o         Governing law aligned with major geographical regions: e.g. Ireland, if your principal place of business is in Europe

§          Program Description

o         Same format for all programs

o         Flexible to accommodate your requirements

o         Like MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding), no legal process necessary

§          Web Site

o         Information about all programs available under TAP

o         More information about all programs you are participating in

o         Work with MS contact if you are interested in participation

o         Easy access to pre-release software

§          Plus …

o         Consistent / Clear taxonomy for Microsoft wide, cross product consistency:
the customer knows what to expect

o         TAP programs part of your strategic IT planning