Why all the consumer love at Microsoft? It's the weak spot

Summary: Microsoft's business-focused products are continuing to carry the day, not that you'd know it from the consumer-centric media events as of late.

Many of Microsoft's enterprise users -- and those of us who love unearthing juicy details about products like System Center, Forefront,  and the like -- have been bemoaning Microsoft's increasingly consumer-centric obsessions.

Sure, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner might still be taking some half-hearted public pot shots at Oracle, VMWare and IBM. And Microsoft's Dynamics ERP wares, now a billion dollar business in their own right (not even including Dynamics CRM) might get their day in the sun every once in a while.

But the real reason the Softies are putting so many of their eggs in the Xbox, Kinect, the newly announced Home Premium Office 365, and Windows 8 consumer-friendly apps and games is consumer is Microsoft's weak spot. Or... if you are a glass half full kind of gal/guy... consumer is where there's the most room for future growth.

Microsoft's Q4 FY 2012 earnings breakout makes this plain. The Server & Tools units revenues were bigger than Windows/Windows Live, as noted by Business Insider. And the Microsoft Business division (home of Office) was bigger in both revenues and profit than Windows, Business Insider added.) The premium SKUs of Windows Server and SQL Server were selling like hot cakes in Q4 FY 2012, according to Microsoft. Business deployments of Office 2010 and Windows 7 were still strong, despite the fact that launches of new versions of these products are just around the corner.

Meanwhile, gaming console sales were down, Windows consumer PC demand was down, Online Services is still in the red. In short, Microsoft's business product and services sales carried the quarter and the year.

So if you're Microsoft, what do you do? Hire a big-name consumer-marketing and polling pro? Or spend the money on highlighting on the next versions of Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and Lync Server -- all of which also went to public beta this week (though Microsoft officials said next-to-nothing about them so far)?

Microsoft is making a concerted effort to appeal to consumers more than business types in its communication these days. But make no mistake: This isn't because the company is a consumer powerhouse. It's because it isn't one... at least not right now. Whether Microsoft can ever wring the kind of money from consumers as it does from business users remains to be seen, but that's no doubt the hope.

Read More

Windows 8 in the Enterprise: Why IT pros say no

By Gina Smith

Takeaway: Gina Smith surveyed enterprise tech pros about their intentions regarding Windows 8. The reaction was less than enthusiastic.

We surveyed 50 tech pros via Google plus, as well as 15 tech pros from large enterprises at the geek site I run about whether they were gearing up for a Windows 8 switch.
Out of 50 tech pros I interviewed at enterprises around the world, 41 said they had no plans to bring in Windows 8 because of learning curve issues. Many are racing to upgrade XP systems to Windows 7 now and Windows 7 sales are as brisk, or brisker, than ever - the opposite of what typically happens before a major OS release comes out.

The move is on

But there is nothing usual about this. There appears to be a massive move to upgrade Windows XP based PCs in the enterprise - MS sold 70 million Windows 7 licenses in just the last quarter - and avoid the huge UI change involving tiles designed more for mobile devices than desktops.

Credit: Ant Pruitt for aNewDomain.net

Consider too that Microsoft announced it would stop supporting Windows XP, that stable and much beloved OS, come April 2014. And there are more options than ever in open systems and enterprise offerings from Google and Apple, to boot.
“I think Windows 8 will make Vista look like a champ,” Santa Monica tech pro Luis Levy told me.
That’s a scary thought. Is Windows 8 destined to become the Vista of 2012? Really?
Not out of the realm of possibility.
Tech pro Patrick He says no Windows 8 for his enterprise - no way, no how, and not now, definitely. “We’ll (likely) stick with 2008/sbs2011 for the near future. Mostly because we’re (only now) finally convincing (the enterprise) to move to the new-fangled system and even then we’re having resistance.”
We provide IT services to SMBs and a lot of them look at what they’ve got and say “It works.” So I don’t need to spend the cash. As far as desktop users (in that enterprise) go, most don’t want Windows 7 because they’re used to XP - and some have software that hasn’t been updated in years,” He added.
For most of the enterprise he works at, he added, the new UI and features in “Windows 8 would be almost too much of a culture shock.
Tech pro Patrick Hegyes of Indianapolis pointed out, “On the desktop side, even most of the people I try converting to Windows 7 are reluctant since the UI is different from XP. With Windows 8 it’s completely different” again.
For Hegyes, if the decision to go to Windows 8 is ever made, it’ll happen after “users get their laptops and PCs at home on Windows 8, adjust to (the UI) there. Then I can move them forward when they’re comfortable,” Hegyes said.
In the Business Insider, +Julie Ort compared the barrier to learning the new Win 8 UI on desktops to “Ben and Jerry’s discontinuing Cherries Garcia ice cream and trying to get everyone to switch to Greek yogurt - even while Cherry Garcia is still flying off the shelves. Yeah, Greek yogurt is all the rage right now in dairy delights, but you can’t really force (it) down the throats of people who prefer ice cream.”
Mitesh Shah, a tech pro in Ahmedabad, India, spoke most harshly. “No Microsoft product is allowed in our network. The reason behind this decision is we think we can fix our servers in Linux much easier. Like suppose there are some situations where we can fix our servers by modify some system files, I can modify Linux system files and release my patches online so other Linux users can read my patches and help me to make these patches more useful,” he said.
Adding, “For the people I personally advise and help with their IT infrastructure, we will probably stick with 2008/sbs2011 for the foreseeable future. I am just now convincing them to switch to the current system since their 2003 installations have worked up until this point. A lot of people I help don’t have the budget to switch to a new OS just yet.”
Microsoft is set to stop supporting Windows XP, an early 2000 era pre Vista OS that is stable and still has a loyal following. Its push now into the enterprise is with ARM tablets running Windows 8. With no Outlook, will it work?

Ant Pruitt for aNewDomain.net

Road less traveled

Colorado Springs systems admin and tech pro Eric Beehler is taking a ride down that Microsoft avenue, one of only eight IT pros I spoke to who also plan Windows 8 adoption, though they’re not sure how or when. Windows 8 on tablets is the big enterprise play that attracts Beehler.
“I think my first target for 2012 server will be for core Windows services like file servers and domain controllers. For Windows 8, tablets will likely be first in a specific use case scenario, especially where people didn’t like a Citrix solution on an iPad. Desktops will be Windows 7 for a while.”
And Windows 8 does have its fans among the gang I spoke with.
Alexander Genato, a tech pro in TK, said “actually like it and am still using the consumer preview on one of my old laptops. I probably won’t upgrade most of my old gadgets to Win 8 but will on my newer devices. (Personally) I will probably buy in on some new touch friendly device. It looked weird at first, but it gets you hooked on its UI after a few days.”
He added:  “This is also the big risk. People generally tend to hate change.”

Outlook

No kidding. Consider Outlook - or the lack thereof - on ARM based Windows 8 tablets. What is up with that?
The fact that ARM-based tablets - like the small-screened Microsoft Surface - are at all hobbled doesn’t bode well. Microsoft needs to get great apps for Windows 8 out there and court these enterprises. The Microsoft decision is no longer a slam dunk. Far from it; stay tuned.

Read More

Get more out of your devices with the Windows 8 Microsoft Device Center

 

By Greg Shultz

Takeaway: With a whole new user interface, the Microsoft Device Center allows you to configure the special features on your Microsoft mouse or keyboard.

Do you have a relatively new Microsoft keyboard or Microsoft mouse connected to your Windows 8 Release Preview system? If so, then you will want to investigate the beta version of the new Microsoft Device Center, which is essentially an updated version of the IntelliType and IntelliMouse software that we used in previous versions of Windows.
Like its predecessors, this package is designed to allow you to configure the special features on your Microsoft mouse or keyboard, but it does so from a whole new style of user interface designed for Windows 8. Gone is the tabbed dialog box of old and in its place is a nice flowing window that feels more like a Web site.
In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report I will show you what the Microsoft Device Center brings to the table.
Note: Keep in mind that both Windows 8 and Microsoft Device Center may change between now and the time of the final release, and consequently some of the features described in this article may be different.

Getting started

To investigate the Microsoft Device Center in Windows 8 Release Preview, I connected a Microsoft Ergonomic Natural Keyboard 4000 and a Microsoft Touch Mouse to my test system. As such, my discussion and examples will be specific to this hardware. If you use other supported Microsoft hardware, you may see a different set of controls and options in the Microsoft Device Center, but your experience will be similar.
You can download the Microsoft Device Center from the Microsoft Hardware web site. Keep in mind that the package comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, so make sure you get the correct version for your system. Once you have downloaded it, installing it is a quick and easy process. The new style installation screen is shown in Figure A.

Figure A

The installation screen for the Microsoft Device Center is very clean looking.

Once you have the Microsoft Device Center installed you’ll find a very slick looking interface that slides left and right to display the settings pages for the keyboard and mouse. As you can see in Figure B, the first page displays the keyboard settings along with a picture of the Ergonomic Natural Keyboard 4000. In the upper-right edge you see half of the mouse.

Figure B

The Microsoft Device Center interface slides left and right to display the settings pages for the keyboard and mouse.

To access the mouse settings page, simply hover your pointer over the mouse image. As you do, the complete image emerges onto the screen, and you can click the image. When you do, the page flips over to the mouse settings page, which shows a picture of the Touch Mouse along with the applicable settings. You’ll then see that a portion of the keyboard image appears in the upper-left edge, as shown in Figure C. To return to the keyboard settings, you repeat the steps of hovering and clicking the keyboard image.

Figure C

The mouse settings page displays a picture of the Touch Mouse along with the applicable settings.

There’s one more thing I want to mention before we move on. You’ll notice that neither the keyboard nor mouse settings pages have an OK button. That’s because each setting change that you make is instantaneous. Make a change and you can instantly experiment with it.

Mouse

As you can see on the mouse settings page for the Touch Mouse, there are three sections titled Left Button, Right Button, and Touch Gestures. There is also a section titled Practice Gestures. Before I go on, let me say that I am right-handed, so I will be looking at the mouse configuration options from that perspective. But keep in mind that if you are left-handed you can instead configure the mouse with that orientation.

Left button

By default, the left button is assigned as the main Click. But, as you can see in Figure D, you can choose any of the options under the Most Used Commands. However, because the left button is the main selection button, you must assign the default Click to the right button before you can assign another task to the left button. Once you do so, you can click View All Commands and you’ll find a whole host of commands that you can assign to the left button. However, since I am right-handed, I’ll leave the setting as is.

Figure D

By default, the left button is assigned as the main Click.

Right button

The right button is by default assigned as Right-click, as shown in Figure E, but you can choose any of the options under the Most Used Commands. You can even create macros and assign them the right mouse button. When you click View All Commands, you’ll find a whole host of additional commands that you can assign to the button. Commands are in the following categories:

• Gaming
• Browser
• Content
• Document
• Windows
• Key
• Special

Figure E

You can assign a number of commands, including macros, to the right button.

The number of available commands is quite extensive. For example, under the Content category you can assign Cut, Copy, or Paste just to name a few. Under the Windows category, you can assign Close, Minimize, or any of several others.
Of course being able to assign so many commands will be more advantageous on a mouse with more buttons than the Touch Mouse, which focuses more on touch gestures than clicking buttons.

Touch Gestures

On the Touch Gestures page, shown in Figure F, you have a series of slider controls for enabling or disabling the Touch Mouse’s gestures. The Touch Mouse allows you to use several gestures, such as a one finger scroll and two fingers, to arrange windows. If you want to learn more about gestures in the Touch Mouse, check out my article “Get in the Gesture Groove with the Microsoft Touch Mouse.”

Figure F

The Touch Mouse provides you with several gestures for performing various operations.

Keyboard

The Ergonomic Natural Keyboard 4000 has a multitude of special keys,. Most of them have tasks assigned to them by default, but all of them are configurable from the keyboard settings page. For example, at the top of the keyboard are the five My Favorites buttons that you can program in Device Center to open Web sites and files, as shown in Figure G. Notice that all the customizable keys can be highlighted by clicking the circle icon to the right of the keyboard picture.

Figure G

Device Center allows you to program the 5 My Favorite buttons to open Web sites and files.

Many of the keys can be configured to run macros that you can create in a Macro Editor, shown in Figure H.

Figure H

Many of the keys can be configured to run macros using the Macro Editor.

Other features

As you’ve been looking at the screen shots above, you have probably noticed the Facebook and Twitter icons on the keyboard and mouse settings pages. I’ve not seen this before, but it does go along with the notion of the user interface being like a web page — and they do work. For instance, I clicked the Facebook icon on the Touch Mouse page and it created a post on my wall complete with a picture on the Touch Mouse and a link to the Microsoft Hardware site.
At the top of the page, you’ll find the Support menu, shown in Figure I, which provides you quick access to a number of pages on the Microsoft Hardware Web site. Along the bottom of the page you’ll find informative tips that display at regular intervals.

Figure I

There are several other features in Device Center worth noting.

Read More

To fight piracy, Microsoft tightens MSDN and TechNet terms again

Summary: Microsoft is about to crack down on software pirates who exploit its generous MSDN and TechNet programs. If you're a current subscriber, you may get caught in the crossfire

For years, Microsoft has offered some of its most generous software deals to its partners and software developers.

The subscription-based MSDN and TechNet offerings allow consultants, resellers, and software developers to roll up their sleeves and try out just about any Microsoft program, past or present, for a low annual subscription rate.  For an annual subscription price of $349, TechNet Professional subscribers get access to nearly every release of every operating system (desktop and server) and Office suite that Microsoft has ever made. MSDN subscribers pay more but also get access to a cornucopia of software.
It’s a tremendous deal. Maybe too good a deal, in fact, as software pirates long ago discovered that the product keys delivered to MSDN and TechNet subscribers could easily be resold along with counterfeit discs.

The result was practically a license to print money. Last month, at a client’s office, I inspected 10 copies of Windows 7 Professional that my client had purchased from a web-based retailer for more than $100 each. The software was counterfeit, but it looked good enough to pass a cursory inspection. And the keys were taken directly from a $349 TechNet subscription.
That’s $1000 in revenue on that one transaction alone, and the pirate behind the operation still had hundreds of keys to resell—for other versions of Windows, for multiple versions of Office and individual Office programs, and for Microsoft server software.

In all, that pirate could easily collect tens of thousands of dollars in revenue by illegally reselling license keys from a single low-cost subscription.
So, if you’re Microsoft, how do you fight back against that kind of determined piracy?
You tighten the terms on those subscriptions, of course. And in the process, you inspire howls of protest from current subscribers.
Microsoft cut TechNet product key allotments back in March, for the second time in two years. Now it’s making additional changes to the TechNet and MSDN programs, with the goal of making them less attractive to pirates while still keeping them useful for partners.
Here’s what the new subscription terms will entail when they take effect later this month:
Fewer license keys. For current versions of Windows client software and Microsoft Office, the number of product keys that MSDN subscribers will be allowed is reduced from 10 to 5. For older versions, only three keys are allowed. TechNet subscribers will continue to be allowed three product keys per version.
Fewer keys available per day. If you’re an MSDN or TechNet subscriber, the number of keys you can claim per day will be reduced from approximately 55 to 10. The intent, of course, is to prevent would-be pirates from paying for a new subscription and then quickly claiming hundreds of product keys and reselling them to unsuspecting customers.
Fewer products. In current editions of these subscription-based offerings, you can download any version of Microsoft Office as well as the standalone products that make up the Office collection. When the new terms kick in, all of those standalone programs will be removed, along with older, unsupported software versions. You’ll no longer be able to download Office 97 or Windows 98, for example.
For TechNet customers, the biggest change of all is the elimination of perpetual license rights. Currently, you’re allowed to continue using any software and product keys you download as part of your TechNet membership, even after your subscription expires. Under the revised terms, new and renewing subscribers will get time-based rights that apply during the subscription term only. The new, simplified subscription agreement makes it clear:
The subscription provides you with access to software and associated benefits. When your subscription concludes, you will no longer have access to the software or any associated benefits and must discontinue your use of the software.
That doesn’t mean that the software itself will stop working, of course. Instead, the license expires along with the subscription, and you’re expected to stop using the evaluation copies.
Although the changes sound drastic, the actual impact should be minor for most subscribers. Each product key can be activated multiple times, which means that an allotment of 3-5 keys can used for dozens of installations. A legitimate subscriber can also request additional keys, and Microsoft says that each such request should be honored within three days. The company says it has also beefed up its support escalation process to deal with potential issues caused by the change in terms.
The new TechNet subscription agreement (four pages of plain language, compared to the current 15 pages of legalese) also makes it clear that the program is for evaluation and isn’t intended as a way to acquire cheap licenses. These bullet points are in section 4 of the new terms:

• You may not use the software if you do not have an active subscription.
• You may install and use the software on your devices only to evaluate the software.
• You may not use the software in a live operating environment, in a staging environment, or with data that has not been backed up.

If you’re a current subscriber to any of the affected programs, you have a couple weeks before the new terms take effect. Product keys you claim now will remain available later, as will software you download.
Given the scope of piracy, these changes are understandable, but for longtime subscribers they’ll be a bit of a shock. Cue the howls of protest in 3, 2, 1 …

Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Global ZDNet is launching Topic: Microsoft Follow via: RSS Email Alert The three phases of Steve Ballmer's tenure at Microsoft

It's almost time for those of us in the U.S. to disappear for a holiday and indulge in some tofu pups. Or other Fourth of Julyish foods of one's choosing.



In that spirit, I'm going to do you a favor. Don't waste a lot of time on the "Microsoft Downfall" story in the August issue of Vanity Fair. (I just spent time reading the full multi-page story myself this morning.) I'm not warning you off because I want you to have more quality beach time. Nor is it because I am critical of negative Microsoft stories. I've written a few of those myself over the years, months, and weeks.
But if you follow Microsoft, you've read this tale already. More than a few times. The Cliff Notes version: Microsoft employees hate Microsoft's stack ranking performance-management system that's been tweaked and retweaked (slightly) for more than five years. (And who can blame them?) Some employees left because of it. Others left because they lost key internal battles that happen in companies of all sizes. Again, I'm not saying I blame them for quitting over this. It's just corporate politics as usual, sadly.

Instead, if you want some vegetarian or carniverous fodder worth chewing, I'd suggest a new blog post from Hal Berenson, a former Microsoft Distinguished Engineer. Berenson's last paragraph -- which I've chopped into three for readability's sake -- cuts to the chase, in my view, when it comes to analyzing CEOs Steve Ballmer's tenure at Microsoft.

Berenson succintly explains:

"To me there are three phases in Steve’s leadership of Microsoft.  In the first phase, while he was President and the first few years as CEO, he mostly focused on keeping the ship from sinking in the face of anti-trust and economic concerns.  Efforts started during this time were heavily influenced by that environment, often with positively ugly results (e.g., Vista).  

"Next came a couple of years of panic where it seemed Microsoft had fallen behind on all fronts and a frantic set of efforts were launched to catch up. The aQuantive acquisition was part of this. It was an era where Steve and Bill (Gates) still shared leadership of the company, and where business units had lots of freedom to prioritize their individual strategy and tactics over an overall corporate strategy.  Some things succeeded, like Windows 7.  But others….  

"Now we are in the third phase where Steve has fully taken the reins and the Microsoft we are seeing is his Microsoft.  It’s not all positive (particularly for employees), but for customers the 2012 product wave is probably the best in the company’s history. Microsoft is finally back. So for me the aQuantive write-down is the last major step in Steve putting the panic phase behind him. History is going to measure Steve ‘s tenure as Microsoft CEO on what happens in 2012 (FY 2013 for those into financial measures) and beyond, not what happened in the 2000s."

I'm not as unbridedly bullish as some bloggers, claiming Microsoft being the most exciting tech company on the planet. I think the reception of Windows 8 and the Surface are still very much unknown variables. But I will say I'm happy that after a few years of folks asking me why I still was bothering to make Microsoft watching my full-time gig "now that Microsoft is irrelevant," that question doesn't come up much any more.

Read More

Chalk up aQuantive as another bad Microsoft buy

Microsoft is taking a $6.2 billion write-down in its fiscal 2012 fourth quarter (which ended on June 30) largely connected with its 2007 acquisition of digtal-advertising agency aQuantive.

This is a "non-cash, non-tax-deductible income statement charge" to its already money-losing Online Services Division, according to a July 2 press release.

Remember aQuantive, the company Microsoft bought five years ago for $6 billion? (It was Microsoft's biggest acquisition ever, at that time.) Microsoft had high hopes for aQuantive back then, with some execs going so far as to claim the purchase was more like a "merger" than a traditional acquisition.

aQuantive used to be known, back in the dot-com heyday years, as "Avenue A." The digital consultancy Razorfish ultimately became part of the firm before Microsoft snapped up the company, hoping to parlay aQuantive's ad savvy into dollars.

Instead, things went badly on the Microsoft online-ad front.
The former aQuantive CEO Brian McAndrews jumped ship a year after the Microsoft acquisition. In 2009, Microsoft sold off Razorfish (for $530 million).
Microsoft ended up doing another search/ad-focused deal in 2010 with Yahoo -- deciding in the eleventh hour against buying that company. There've been problems with that partnership around Microsoft being able to deliver the revenues guaranteed and anticipated.
To top it all off, in 2011, Microsoft ended up retiring the ad-exchange platform it bought in 2007 when it purchased AdECN.
(Is anyone still wondering why the Softies got acquisition-shy?)
Last quarter, Microsoft's Online Services Division, the home of Bing and its online ad technologies, lost $480 million (which was actually $300 million less than the comparable previous quarter).
Microsoft is set to report its fourth quarter fiscal 2012 earnings on July 19.

Read More

Microsoft puts more muscle behind Windows 8 upgrade push

Microsoft is offering users running Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 an offer to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99.
Microsoft officials shared details about the latest promotion on July 2 on the Windows Team blog.
That's substantially cheaper than Microsoft traditionally charges for "upgrade" versions of Windows. With Windows 7, Microsoft charged users roughly $119 to $219 (estimated retail prices) to upgrde from comparable versions of Vista to 7.
The coming offer, available through Windows.com, is good in 131 markets, according to today's blog post. Windows Media Center can be added for free to this bundle through the "add features" option after the upgrade. (Microsoft officials have said previously that Windows Media Center would be a low-priced add on to Windows 8 Pro.)

Those purchasing the Windows 8 Pro upgrade through Windows.com also will have the option of purchasing a backup DVD for $15 plus shipping and handling.  Those preferring to buy from a local store will be able to purchase a packaged DVD version of the upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $69.99 during this promotion period.

This upgrade promotion for Windows 8 Pro both online and at retail runs through January 31, 2013. It commences as of the general availability of Windows 8, confirmed a tweet from a Microsoft public relations rep.

Microsoft officials announced recently another Windows 8 upgrade promotion -- the $14.99 Windows 8 Upgrade offer available to those purchasing new Windows 7 PCs between June 2, 2012 and January 31, 2013.

Microsoft officials also disclosed officially the supported upgrade paths for Windows 8 in a fairly general way in today's post (thanks @TheRackow). I posted late last week more complete information that has been shared privately with select individuals about the upgrade options available to XP, Vista and Windows 7 users for Windows 8.
Microsoft officials have not said publicly when Windows 8, in its four or so various flavors, will be generally available. The latest rumored release-to-manufacturing dates for Windows 8 are now centering around July 2012, with the rumored general-availability date expected by many to be in October 2012.
Update: By the way, upgrades are not the main way most users get the latest version of Windows. Far from it. Most -- both consumers and business users -- tend to wait until they are getting new PCs preloaded with a new version of Windows, rather than take the time and trouble to upgrade their existing PCs.
Update No. 2 (July 5): Computerworld (citing Microsoft as its source) says that users running the Windows 8 Release Preview also will be allowed to move to the Windows 8 Pro final version for $39.99 once the OS is generally available. Only personal data files will be kept, however; no settings or applications will be automatically moved over as part of the process, Computerworld added.

Read More

Increase any PC's performance with these 10 steps

Takeaway: Justin James lists 10 simple steps that will help improve the speed and performance of any PC.

There’s so much information out there about PC performance (especially on Windows machines), it’s difficult to be sure what’s right and what’s not so helpful. Here are 10 proven performance enhancements you can make to your computer, many of which are free.

1: Get rid of malware

New machines shouldn’t have malware on them. But one of the most common causes of the “my PC used to be fast, and now it isn’t!” complaint is actually the presence of malware. Malware can sneak onto a computer in a zillion different ways and quite often it sits in the background slowing your machine as it sends out spam emails, searches for other computers to infect, works on cracking cryptography, or performs any number of the other nefarious tasks that hackers like to use their botnet slaves for. There’s a good chance that the malware brought even more friends with it (that’s often how you see computers with thousands of viruses on them not long after the initial infection), and the infection may be bad enough to justify a wipe and reload. My first step in investigating a slow system is usually a virus scan.

2: Upgrade to a better video card

For typical business productivity tasks, a video card probably isn’t an upgrade that will have a lot of value. But for gamers and other similar uses, a video card is a slam-dunk upgrade. If your current card and motherboard support SLI or CrossFireX, adding a second card and bridging them will be a good option as well. In some scenarios, better video cards can be a huge benefit even without heavy onscreen video work, because certain applications can leverage the GPUs for calculations.

3: Get a faster drive

Many times, the real performance issue is the speed of disks. Look at numbers like the RPMs, cache size, seek speed, and transfer rate to justify buying a faster drive. Often, a good drive will seem slow because the computer’s power settings are allowing it to spin down. You may want to consider changing these settings to make sure that the disk is more likely to be ready to work when you need it to. While the SSD vs. hard disk debate is still continuing, SSDs usually seem to feel faster to users. Boot times are usually cut for sure. But something about an SSD makes a system feel more responsive or “snappy” to use, and for day-to-day work, that’s a great feeling.

4: Address hardware and driver issues

All too often, system slowness is actually a sign of hardware problems. For example, if your CPU isn’t being properly cooled, it will often have its speed reduced in an effort to keep it from overheating. Recoverable errors with disk access can kill your throughput while not showing up as a dead drive. And bad hardware drivers can often make the whole system slow, especially video drivers. Using utilities to check your CPU speed and various temperatures, scanning for hard drive errors, and updating your drivers is a good start to investigating performance problems. Often, problems caused by hardware or drivers are not just poor speeds, but system flakiness too.

5: Use a RAID

Using a RAID can dramatically lower the read and write speeds of your disks, depending on the RAID level you choose. You will want to do some research to see what RAID level fits your needs the best. Personally, I am a fan of RAID 1, 6, and 10 because I feel that they offer appropriate levels of data protection along with a good measure of speed improvements.

6: Try a different browser

It’s no secret: Different browsers perform differently, and most people spend a lot of time in their Web browser. Benchmarks really muddy the browser speed conversation. Some browsers perform well on some but do poorly on others, even when they are supposed to test the same thing. The problem with the benchmarks is that what they usually test is not real work performance! While JavaScript is an important part of the modern Web, few Web applications beat on the JavaScript engine hard enough to produce a noticeable impact on performance. That said, it’s been my experience that the Chrome browser is the fastest for actual work. If you want to have your Web browser feel more responsive and lively, consider a switch to Chrome.

7: Remove junk

It’s easy to have a computer get loaded up with junk that slows it down. The worst part is, we invite this garbage into our lives by installing “helpful” utilities, toolbars, and other add-ons. I could easily write a list of 10 kinds of computer-stalling junk. Here are some of the things you’ll want to seek out and remove for best performance:

• Automatic update systems for various applications (but be careful: some apps, like Flash, Acrobat, QuickTime, and Web browsers are prime malware targets and you will want to keep these up-to-date)
• Things that run on startup
• Windows services you don’t really need
• Crapware from the PC maker
• Toolbars
• Browser plug-ins (the Skype browser plug-in is an especially bad offender, I’ve found)
• P2P applications
• Web servers and database servers that were installed by since-removed applications, but left behind

8: Add a faster DNS lookup server

Most ISPs love to brag about how much bandwidth they are giving you. But they don’t mind letting the rest of their infrastructure slowly get overwhelmed or deteriorate. Among the biggest offenders are the DNS servers our ISPs use. If you want to know why things seem to take forever to start loading, slow DNS servers are often the cause. Consider adding a fast DNS server as your primary DNS server in your TCP/IP settings. Google’s Public DNS server is a great option.

9: Defrag

Defragging your hard drives is a great way to get some more performance. While modern Windows systems automatically defrag on a regular basis, I’ve found that the Windows defragging is fairly unaggressive. We’ve reviewed a lot of different defrag apps here at TechRepublic. I suggest that you check out your alternatives and find one that does a better job for you.

10: Check network connectivity

Time and time again, “system slowness” actually is caused by networking issues. Our computers do so much on the Internet that slowness there can affect just about everything you do on a regular basis. While there isn’t enough space to write an exhausting troubleshooting list here, some of the things you should try (or investigate) are:

• Replacing the network cables, switches, routers, WiFi access points, etc.
• Calling the ISP and checking the distance from the CO (for DSL) or the local segment’s current load (for cable); the ISP may need to rewire or rework its connectivity. Satellite customers will want to double-check their dish installation and ensure that it is tightly locked down and pointed in the right direction.
• Malware scanning on all PCs to see if malware is burdening the network
• Inspecting the wiring of the phone lines (for DSL) or coax (cable customers) to look for loose connections, corrosion, or flaky wires
• For cable customers, finding out how many splitters are between the line from the pole and their modem. If it is more than one (and preferably only a two-way splitter), they should rewire so that they have only a single two-way splitter between the pole and the modem to ensure the cleanest signal possible.

Read More

Better troubleshooting with the Windows 8 Task Manager Performance tab

 

Takeaway: The Windows 8 Task Manager Performance tab has many new features and provides users with more detailed information than ever.

Back in October 2011, I wrote an article titled “Explore the Advanced Features of the New Windows 8 Task Manager,” in which I provided you with an overview of all the Task Manager features in the Windows 8 Developers Preview. Well, now here we are eight months later and working with the Release Preview edition of Windows 8, and at this point in time Task Manager should be feature complete. Therefore, I have decided to spend some time taking a detailed look at the information and features on the various tabs.
Now you might think that I would want to start with the Processes tab because of all the impressive new features found there, but I’m not. Instead, I’m going to start with the Performance tab because I’ve discovered that by dividing the tab into separate sections for CPU, Memory, Disks, and Ethernet, as shown in Figure A, Microsoft has really packed a lot of information into this tab and I don’t want that fact to be overlooked. (I’ve combined the graphs into a composite image, so that at a glance you can see that each section on the tab is packed with information.)
In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report, I’ll delve into Task Manager’s Performance tab and take a close look at all the new features and detailed information displayed on each section of the Performance tab.

Figure A

The Performance tab shows data and graphs of the CPU, Memory, Disks, and Ethernet.

Before I get started, there is one outward change that I noticed right away and that is that the title bar for this tool used to read Windows Task Manager and now the title bar just reads Task Manager. Not sure how significant that change is or even if it is permanent, but, nonetheless, there it is.
Editor’s note: To refresh your memory, in Windows 8 you can get to the Task Manager by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL, selecting Task Manager, and clicking the More Details button.

CPU

On the CPU section of the Performance tab, the actual CPU is now specifically identified in detail with the brand, the model number, the speed, as well as the number of sockets, cores, and logical processors being prominently displayed, as shown in Figure B. You can tell at a glance whether processor’s hardware Virtualization technology is enabled. (An operation that not too long ago was difficult to perform and raised all sorts of confusion when it was required to run Windows XP Mode in Windows 7.) You can even find information about the CPU caches.

Figure B

The CPU section of the Performance tab now identifies the CPU in detail.

The graph displays the percentage of your CPU’s utilization on a scale of 0 to 100 over a 60-second time frame. The Utilization number below the graph shows the percentage at any one point in time. On the next line down, you can find some of the information from the older Task Manager: Processes, Threads, and Handles and below that you’ll find the Up Time.
Handles and threads are actually sub-objects of processes. The Handles value shows the number of object identifiers, or handles, that are currently in use by all the running processes. The Threads value actually refers to the number of sub processes running inside larger processes. The Processes value, of course, represents the number of currently running processes.
By default the CPU section displays a single graph showing overall utilization. If you want to see a graph for each logical processor, just right-click and select Logical Processors. If you want the graph to display kernel times, right-click on the graph and select Show Kernel Times. The composite image shown in Figure C shows both of these right-click menus. (I’ll cover some of the features found on the right-click menu in a moment.)

Figure C

You can reconfigure the graph to display all logical processors and to show kernel times.

Memory

On the Memory section of the Performance tab, the total amount of memory is prominently displayed along with the memory type, as shown in Figure D. You can also see the chip speed, the number of memory slots being used, and the form factor.
How many times have you sat down at an unfamiliar PC and wanted to know that level of detail about the memory in the system? Well, now it’s right here in Task Manager. You can even see the amount of memory that is reserved for hardware.

Figure D

The Memory section of the Performance tab provides you with detailed information about memory usage.

As you can see, there are two graphs in the Memory section. The first graph shows memory usage on a scale of 0 to the total amount of memory over a 60-second time frame. The second graph, titled Memory Composition, shows the memory used by processes, drivers, or the operating system.
Below the graph you’ll find the familiar measurements, such as the amount of memory in use and the amount of available memory. The Committed value is a simple measurement that shows Page File usage. Here, the first number indicates the total amount of physical and virtual memory currently in use, while the second number indicates the total amount of physical and virtual memory available on your computer.
The Cached value indicates the amount of physical memory used recently for system resources. (This memory will remain in the cache in case the system resources are needed again, but it’s available should other operations need it.)
The Paged Pool value indicates the amount of physical memory used by the operating system to store objects that can be written to disk when they are not being used. The Non-Paged Pool value indicates the amount of physical memory used by the operating system to store objects that cannot be written to disk but must remain in physical memory as long as they are allocated.

Disk

On the Disk section of the Performance tab, the model number of the drive and the type of drive are prominently displayed at the top of the section, as shown in Figure E. (No need to go to Device Manager to find that information any more). You can also see the disk capacity, how much of it is formatted, whether it is the system disk, and whether it contains a page file.

Figure E

The Disk section of the Performance tab contains two graphs.

As you can see, there are two graphs in the Disk section. The first graph is titled Active Time and shows the percentage of your disk’s utilization (the percentage of time the disk is processing read or write requests) on a scale of 0 to 100 over a 60-second time frame. The second graph is titled Disk Transfer Rate and shows you the transfer rates between the hard disk and the system over a 60-second time frame.
Below the graph you’ll find the Active Time value, which indicates the percentage of use at any one point in time. The Average Response Time value indicates the amount of time it takes the drive to actually transfer data to the system. Of course the Read and Write Speed values indicate how fast the disk is performing I/O operations.

Ethernet

On the Ethernet section of the Performance tab, the name of the network card is prominently displayed at the top of the section, as shown in Figure F. You’ll also see the adapter name, the DNS name, and both the IPv4 and IPv6 IP addresses.

Figure F

On the Ethernet section of the Performance tab, the name of the network card is prominently displayed at the top of the section.

The graphs show overall send and receive activity on a scale of 0 to 100 Kbps over a 60-second time frame while the Send and Receive values below the graph show the type of activity at any one point in time. If you right-click anywhere on the Ethernet section and select View Network Details, you’ll see a second window full of detailed information, as shown in Figure G.

Figure G

Select View Network Details and you’ll see a second window full of detailed information.

Changing the window display

There are a number of ways that you can change the display of Task Manager’s window. If you right-click in the left side of the window, you’ll see the Summary View and the Hide Graphs commands. Selecting Summary View removes all the details and leaves the graph thumbnails and selecting Hide Graphs replaces the graphs with bullet points, as illustrated in Figure H.

Figure H

Using Summary View and Hide Graphs, you can change the display of Task Manager’s window.

If you right-click on any of the main graphs and select the Graph Summary View command, only the graph will be displayed. The composite image in Figure I shows each of the graphs in the Graph Summary View.

Figure I

This composite image shows each of the graphs in the Graph Summary View.

You’ll also see two other commands on the menu: View and Copy. When you select View, you’ll see a submenu that allows you to switch between the CPU, Memory, Disks, and Ethernet sections. If you select the Copy command, any of the text-based details on the screen will be copied to the clipboard where you can easily paste them into Notepad or an email message.

Read More

Review: Utilu Browser Collection

 

By Matthew Nawrocki

Takeaway: Testing websites with all the various browser versions is a hassle addressed by the Utilu Browser Collection –- at least that is the plan.

Any experienced web developer will tell you that despite the recent advances in web browser technology and the ever-improving conformance to W3C browser standards, no website can be tested in one web browser and then call it a day. In fact, if a developer doesn’t test his or her sites out on multiple versions of any given browser, they are bound to cause cries of pain and anguish from their clients whenever bugs that slipped off the radar rear their ugly heads later.
One way around this problem is to have each version of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and other web browsers installed within countless virtual machines. However, this is an enormous task and can be a disk space hog and a time waster.

Multiple browsers

Utilu’s Browser Collections for both Internet Explorer and Firefox claims to rectify this problem to a degree, at least for the Windows users, by repackaging two popular browsers with all released versions within one installer package. Basically, you can download either an IE or Firefox collection, install it, and have every version of that particular browser on tap at your disposal. Such a setup is pretty much a web developer’s dream come true. With every version of IE and Firefox accessible at the same time without one browser overriding another, separate virtual-machine environments are no longer necessary.









However, caveat emptor: Aside from the Firefox browser collection, which seemed to work without a hitch on my PC, the Internet Explorer collection told a different story. Depending on the version of Windows used, sometimes browsers like IE 7 or IE 8 would refuse to load or act up and cause issues. Evidently, I’m not alone in my observations.
FileForum’s website has end-user reviews on Utilu’s IE kit, and the reviews are heavily mixed for the most part, with the average hovering around three out of five stars. This probably has something to do with the rather OS-dependent nature of Internet Explorer, such that it relies on various hooks within Windows to work properly, and in some versions of Windows, either these hooks are notably absent or significantly altered, preventing the browser from properly executing.

Bottom line

So does Utilu’s solution to the web developer nightmare of testing sites in many web browsers and the versions within each really work well? The Firefox collection seems solid enough, and it lets me test sites rapidly. However, with the IE platform having clearly gotten the short end of the stick, you’re probably going to need to keep your Windows XP VMs handy, at least until the classic IE 6, 7, and 8 versions are put out to pasture for good. Unfortunately, who knows how long we will have to wait for that to happen.

Read More

Migrate 3D Pinball for Windows Space Cadet from XP to Windows 7

By Greg Shultz

Takeaway: Greg Shultz shows you how to migrate 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet from Windows XP to Windows 7.

On a recent weekend, my daughters and I were perusing the various booths at a local flea market and came upon an old pinball machine. The machine had been refurbished and worked great with loud music, flashing lights, and all sorts of cool sound effects. My daughters got a big kick out of the game, and the three of us played for close to an hour.

Later that evening the girls asked me if we could find a pinball game for their Windows 7 computer. Remembering that Windows XP came with a Pinball game, I showed it to them on one of my older test systems. They loved it and asked if we could install it on their computer. At first I wasn’t sure that it was possible, but upon doing some investigation, I discovered that it was.
After putting it on their system and playing it over and over again, I remembered how much fun this simple little game is and thought that other folks might be interested in putting Windows XP’s 3D Pinball game in Windows 7. After all, even the most dedicated tech folks need to unwind every once in a while with a computer game.
In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report, I’ll show you how to migrate 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet from Windows XP to Windows 7. Along the way, I’ll give you a little history about the game as well as show you some awesome tricks.

3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet

When Windows 95 came out, one of the features of the new operating system was that it provided a great platform for gaming, and lots of developers, such as Maxis, were clamoring for a piece of the action. 3D Pinball featuring the Space Cadet table was created by Maxis Software and licensed to Microsoft for inclusion in Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. Maxis later released the Full Tilt! Pinball game package, which included the Space Cadet table as well as two other tables named Dragon’s Keep and Skulduggery.

When Microsoft was developing Windows NT 4.0 with the new Windows 95 user interface, they decided to make 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet one of the operating system’s default games and ported it over from Windows 95 to Windows NT 4.0 for the 1996 release. When Windows 98 came out, it oddly did not come with 3D Pinball. However, the Windows 98 CD contained an INF file (a Setup Information file) that you could use to install 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet in Windows 98 using the Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 CD.
3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet became such a popular game in Windows that Microsoft included it in Windows 2000, Windows ME, and Windows XP. But, when Windows Vista came out in 2007, 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet was nowhere to be found. After being a part of Windows for 12 years, the pinball game was no longer included. My guess is that the licensing agreement ran out.

Making the migration

There are two ways that you can migrate 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet from Windows XP to Windows 7. The method you choose will depend on whether you have an old machine still running Windows XP or you just have the Windows XP DVD. I’ll cover both methods.
I suppose that you could also migrate the game to Windows 7 from Windows NT or Windows 2000, but I have not tried doing that and cannot guarantee that it will work. I absolutely would not recommend trying to migrate 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet to Windows 7 from Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME.
One more thing that you need to be aware of is that the game has a maximum resolution of 640×480. The game does have a full screen mode, and I have been able to use it on most of my test systems. However, I was not able to run the game in full screen on my multiple-monitor system.

Prep work

Regardless of which method you use to migrate 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet from Windows XP, you’ll need to do a little prep work on your Windows 7 system first. To begin, you’ll want to be logged on with an account with administrative privileges. Then, launch Windows Explorer. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows 7, navigate to the C:\Program Files\Windows NT folder. If you are running a 64-bit version of Windows 7, navigate to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows NT folder.
When you get to the Windows NT folder, create a new folder called Pinball. You may encounter a Destination Folder Access Denied dialog box, like the one shown in Figure A, and will need to click the Continue button in order to be able to create the Pinball folder.

Figure A

To create the Pinball folder, you’ll have to click Continue in the Destination Folder Access Denied dialog box.

Copying the files from a Window XP system

If you have a running Windows XP system with 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet installed on it, then you’ll need a USB flash drive with at least 3MB of free space. Once you have the flash drive in the system, launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Pinball folder. You will find 67 files in that folder and will need to select them all, as shown in Figure B, and then copy them all to the flash drive. As you can see the majority of the files, 60 to be exact, are WAV files that represent the Pinball game’s sound effects.

Figure B

In the Pinball folder on Windows XP, you’ll find 67 files.

Once the copy operation is complete, you can copy the Help file if you want to have it. If so, navigate to the C:\Windows\Help folder and copy the Pinball.chm Help file to the flash drive.
Now you can remove the flash drive from your Windows XP system and insert it into the Windows 7 system.

Copying the files from a Windows XP CD

If you don’t have an old Windows XP system from which to copy the files for 3D Pinball game but you do have a Windows XP CD, you can extract the files from the CD using a set of Command Line commands. To make this process as painless as possible, we’ll extract the files from the Windows XP CD to a USB flash drive with at least 3MB of free space and then copy the files to Windows 7 from within Windows Explorer. (Of course, if you are so inclined, you can extract the files right from the Windows XP CD to the Windows 7 hard drive, but doing so is a bit trickier, so I’ll just stick to the straightforward method.)
Once you have the flash drive in the system, insert the Windows XP CD it into the optical drive on your Windows 7 system. When the AutoPlay dialog box appears, as shown in Figure C, just close it.

Figure C

When the AutoPlay dialog box appears, just close it.

Now, access Computer, right-click on the optical drive, and select the Open Command Window Here command, as shown in Figure D. As you can see on my example system, the USB flash drive is assigned to drive letter G.

Figure D

Select the Open Command Window Here Command from the context menu.

When you see the Command Prompt, type the command, CD i386, to change to the i386 directory as shown in Figure E.

Figure E

The first thing you have to do is change to the i386 folder on the Windows XP CD.

At this point, you can type the following commands substituting the drive letter assigned to your USB flash drive.

expand -r pinball*.* G:\

expand -r sound*.wa_ G:\

expand -r font.da_ G:\

expand -r table.bm_  G:\

copy wavemix.inf G:\

When you complete the operation, you should have 70 files on your flash drive.

Copying the files to Windows 7

Now that you have all the files to run 3D Pinball on your flash drive, you can use Windows Explorer and Drag-and-Drop to copy them to the Pinball folder you set up earlier. When you do so, you’ll encounter a Destination Folder Access Denied dialog box, like the one shown in Figure F. Just click the Continue button and all the files will be copied.

Figure F

Because the Program Files folder is a system folder, you’ll encounter a Destination Folder Access Denied warning message.

Now, just right-click on the Pinball.exe file and select the Send To | Desktop (create shortcut) command. You can now place that shortcut on the Start menu and use it to run the 3D Pinball game.

Learning more

If you are interested, you can learn all about the 3D Pinball game from the Help system. However, keep in mind that the Help file will be missing the graphics and some of the links won’t work. The Table.bmp file that you copied to the Pinball folder contains a map that identifies all the table components.

Awesome tricks

The 3D Pinball game is divided into nine levels, which are represented as ranks. The lowest rank is Cadet, and the highest rank is Fleet Admiral. As you complete each mission, you advance to the next rank. However, as soon as the game is over, you lose your rank and must start a new game with three balls and the rank of Cadet.
Here are a few awesome tricks that you can employ by typing secret codes

• If you want to regain the rank you achieved in a previous game, start a new game and immediately type rmax. Each time you type this secret command you’ll advance one rank level.
• You can get an extra ball while the Awaiting Deployment message is displaying on the table by typing 1max.
• If you want to activate the Gravity Well, start a new game and immediately type gmax.
• You can get an unlimited number of balls and essentially play for as long as you like by starting a new game and immediately typing bmax. Each time you lose a ball, a new one will appear. (While playing with an unlimited number of balls, none of the other tricks will work.)
• Last but not least, you can control the ball with your mouse by starting a new game and immediately typing hidden test. When you do, you can click the ball with your left mouse button and essentially drag it anywhere you want and rack up an unbelievable number of points.

Keep in mind that there isn’t a text box into which you type these secret codes — you just type them. However, the 3D Pinball for Windows window must be active.

Read More

Upgrade paths to System Center 2012 Operations Manager

By John Joyner

Takeaway: John Joyner explains the various upgrade paths to System Center Operations Manager 2012 for current users of SCOM 2007 R2. Find out the options before you decide if it’s worth the effort right now.

When Microsoft released the suite of eight products in System Center 2012 last month, these included the new version of System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). People who use SCOM today to get their jobs done want to know about the new release, and to have answers for questions like “how soon should I upgrade?” and “what are the considerations?”

The System Center 2012 Operations Manager release includes new features like network device monitoring and application performance monitoring that may be interesting to many users of the previous product, Operations Manager 2007 R2 or earlier releases such as SCOM 2007 and even MOM 2005 (Microsoft Operations Manager, the predecessor to SCOM).

The topic of this article is upgrading to the 2012 release of SCOM for current SCOM 2007 R2 users. Because upgrading to a new version of SCOM is going to take some work, you want to know if it’s going to be worth the effort. Particularly for smaller customers of SCOM 2007 R2, those with a single “all in one SCOM server” (when running already on 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2), there is a quick upgrade experience like that shown in Figure A. For larger SCOM customers, the upgrade needs to follow a specific upgrade path with a number of steps.

Figure A - The SCOM 2012 upgrade wizard, ready to upgrade all SCOM 2007 R2 components on one server.

Strategic decisions

In general, there are no hugely compelling reasons to rapidly upgrade to the new SCOM release. However, if one of the new features is very appealing to you, this is an incentive to upgrade sooner. For example, if you have a problematic line of business web application built on Microsoft’s .NET framework, the new Application Performance Monitoring (APM) feature of SCOM 2012 could enable a fast solution to lingering issues.
On the other hand, if your current infrastructure and SCOM environment are healthy and providing value, it’s probably best to wait and deploy SCOM 2012 as part of a longer-term, broader plan. Thanks to the new System Center licensing that includes all the management products, many organizations will find economic benefit in deploying multiple System Center 2012 components in private cloud scenarios. Best practice is to deploy SCOM in concert with the other components to get the most out of Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), Data Protection Manager (DPM), Configuration Manager (SCCM), Service Manager (SCSM), Orchestrator, App Controller, and Endpoint Protection.
All upgrade paths are supported to either (1) re-use the existing database and carry the SCOM 2007 R2 management group forward into SCOM 2012 format, or (2) to stand up a new, parallel SCOM 2012 management group and seamlessly migrate agents to the new management group. As described in the following paragraphs, whether you can upgrade a particular SCOM 2007 R2 component in place depends on the operating system (OS) and SQL Server version installed on the existing computer.
The decision to upgrade the SCOM 2007 R2 database or migrate to a new SCOM 2012 database is a business decision. If you want to maximize the performance and scaling potential of your new SCOM 2012 management group, start with a clean database and migrate custom management packs and settings from OpsMgr 2007 R2. Also consider starting with a clean database if your SCOM 2012 architecture is delivered from a different platform or service location than SCOM 2007 R2.

In-place upgrade

If you have SCOM 2007 R2 running on supported operating system (OS) and SQL platforms, you can upgrade in place on all SCOM components and save a lot of time. In a single-server scenario, this is a Windows 2008 R2 Root Management Server (RMS) running SQL Server 2008 SP1 or SQL Server 2008 R2. Both the SCOM database and the SCOM components are upgraded to the SCOM 2012 release. In a multiple-server SCOM deployment, these OS and SQL requirements exist for all computers you want to upgrade to SCOM 2012 components.
Before you can upgrade the SCOM 2007 R2 database to SCOM 2012 (which is the last step in an upgrade project!), every component in the management group needs to be running SCOM 2012. That means every agent, gateway, report server, web console, and secondary management server needs to be upgraded to SCOM 2012. Microsoft makes this easier with an Upgrade Helper Management Pack. The helper management pack (Figure B) keeps track of which SCOM 2007 R2 components still need to be upgraded, and in what order you should upgrade them.

Figure B - The Upgrade Helper Management Pack keeps track of the order of SCOM 2012 component upgrades.

Side-by-side migration/update

If you have SCOM 2007 R2 running on non-supported operating systems (OSs) and/or database platforms, you will need to migrate one or more SCOM components. However, even if your RMS is running on an unsupported platform, such as a 32-bit OS or a clustered RMS, you can still upgrade the SCOM 2007 R2 database in place by using an ‘upgrade from secondary management server’ scenario.

• If you have management servers or gateways that can’t upgrade in place, migrate the SCOM 2007 R2 role off the computer, then reinstall the SCOM 2012 role on a computer that meets requirements.
• Optionally name the upgraded computers running SCOM 2012 components the same names as their SCOM 2007 R2 predecessors.
• These role migration scenarios most likely involve management servers and gateways running 32-bit OS and any RMS running in a fail-over cluster. Neither of these platforms can upgrade in place.

Upgraded components that are downstream can continue to report to legacy upstream components when rolling out an upgrade. For example, SCOM 2012 agents can report to a SCOM 2007 R2 gateway or management server.
Likewise, SCOM 2012 gateways can report to SCOM 2007 R2 management servers. Leveraging this concept, ‘leap-frog’ upgrades from the edges of your SCOM 2007 R2 infrastructure, in an inward direction.
Figure C shows how multi-homed agents (in the bottom row of the diagram) communicate with legacy SCOM 2007 R2 and new SCOM 2012 management groups simultaneously in a side-by-side migration scenario.

Figure C - Migrating to SCOM 2012 management group using dual-homed SCOM 2012 agents.

Read More

Create VMs with downloaded virtual appliances in VirtualBox and VMware Player

By Jack Wallen

Takeaway: Learn how to load pre-built virtual machines in VirtualBox and VMware Player by using downloadable appliances and other available .vmdk files.

Most IT administrators know how to create a new virtual server. You download or purchase the ISO or install disk, fire up your favorite virtual machine (VM) tool, and install the operating system on a new VM. But how do you make use of all of those virtual appliances and other pre-built VMs? I’ll show you how to load pre-built VMs in VirtualBox and VMware Player.
I will assume that:

• You have either or both virtual tools installed, as well as a suitable VM or virtual appliance downloaded and ready to go.
• You know how to create a new VM within either or both of the VM tools.
• The virtual appliance to be added is in the .vmdk format.

VirtualBox

During the simple process of creating a new VM in VirtualBox, you will have to point the VM wizard to the .vmdk file on your hard drive. Let’s walk through the process to that point.
Step 1: Start the wizard and name your VM
Fire up VirtualBox and click the New button. In the first screen of the wizard, you need to name your VM and select the operating system the virtual machine is based upon (Figure A).
Figure A

VirtualBox will attempt to automatically detect the operating system, based on the name entered. (Click the image to enlarge.)

Step 2: Assign memory to the machine
In the next window, you need to assign an amount of memory to the VM. Don’t give the VM so much memory that your host system will become bogged down in the running of the guest.
Step 3: Associate the hard drive
This is where you associated your .vmdk file to the VM. In this window, select Use Existing Hard Disk, and then click the folder icon to browse to the location of your .vmdk file (Figure B).
Figure B

If you’ve already used a .vmdk file, it will show up in the drop-down listing for the existing hard drives. (Click the image to enlarge.)

After you set up the hard drive, you can finish the VM setup per normal, and you’re ready to fire up this VM.

VMware Player

The use of a .vmdk is somewhat similar in VMware Player as it is in VirtualBox. You will follow the process of creating a new VM as you normally would except, in the first screen of the creation process, you should select I Will Install The Operating System Later (Figure C).
Figure C

It’s not terribly intuitive, but it’s easy to add a .vmdk file to a new VM in VMware Player. (Click the image to enlarge.)

After completing the process of creating the new VM, go back to the VMware Player management window, select the VM to have the new .vmdk file and click the Edit Virtual Machine Settings button; this will bring up the Settings window, where a new Hard Drive can be added (Figure D).
Figure D

This gives you an at-a-glance report on everything about this VM. (Click the image to enlarge.)

Click the Add button and select Hard Disk from the listing of hardware in the new window. In the resulting window, select Use An Existing Virtual Disk (Figure E).
Figure E

This is the only option that will allow you to select a downloaded .vmdk file. (Click the image to enlarge.)

In the next window, click the Browse button and navigate to the directory housing your .vmdk file. Once you’ve located it, click the Finish button.
Next, remove the original hard disk created during the first steps of the VM setup by selecting the initial hard disk (it should be the first one listed), clicking the Remove button, and clicking Save. Your VMware Player VM is ready to fire up!

Conclusion

If you plan on using VMs, you need to learn how to use downloadable appliances and other available .vmdk files. The methods I describe in this post should get you up to speed with two very popular VM tools.

Read More

Microsoft: Office 365 for enterprises now FISMA-certified

By Mary Jo Foley 

Summary: Microsoft’s Office 365 hosted app bundle is FISMA-certified, making it potentially more appealing to U.S. government customers.

Microsoft announced on May 3 that its Office 365 cloud-hosted app bundle has received the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) nod from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

FISMA certification is a requirement for many U.S. government contracts. FISMA specifies a “comprehensive framework to protect government information, operations and assets against natural or man-made threats.”

The Office 365 ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulation) SKU — the rough equivalent to the dedicated  BPOS Federal SKU — already was FISMA certified. (BPOS — Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite — is the predecessor to Office 365.) But prior to this week, the shared/multitenant Office 365 for enterprises wasn’t FISMA certified.

“FISMA is important to our customers because it creates a process for federal agencies to certify and accredit the security of their information management systems,” said Julia White, a Senior Director in the Microsoft Office Division, via an Office 365 blog post. “IT solutions with FISMA certification and accreditation have federal agency approval for their use in line with the level of security established by that agency.”

Last year, Microsoft and Google, which offers Google Apps as a head-to-head competitor with Microsoft’s bundle of hosted SharePoint, Exchange and Lync, traded barbs over when and whether each could claim FISMA certification.

Office 365’s FISMA news comes the same week that the U.S. Department of the Interior announced it was going with Google Apps rather than Office 365 for a new, unified cloud-hosted e-mail system for its approximately 90,000 employees. The DOI’s original request for proposal for the system stipulated FISMA compliance as one of the requirements for the contract, something which Microsoft didn’t have with its cloud-hosted app bundle in 2010. FISMA certification also was a requirement for the updated version of the DOI contract.

Read More