Archive for the 'Windows 7' Category

Microsoft tech•ed Europe 2009, Berlin, 12 November 2009

Published 12 November 2009 Data Protection Manager , Exchange 2010 , Hyper-V , IPv6 , Microsoft , Networking , SharePoint , System Center , Systems Management , Tech , Training , Virtualisation , Windows 7 , Windows Server 2008 R2 Leave a Comment
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Slighty shabby and a late start to Thursday following the Windows Server 2008 R2 EAP dinner – many thanks to Stuart, Gareth, Neil, Alex, etc.

We were also joined by Allen Stewart & Rajesh Dave from corp.  Allen is Principal PM for Windows Server and Raj is a PM for Windows Hyper-V.  Both are very interesting & incredibly knowledgable guys and we had a great chat.  I hounded them for info on Hyper-V thin-provisioning of memory and whilst they couldn’t confirm anything as said ‘we all live in hope…’

As for the dinner, the UK team chose a fabulous Italian restaurant called Bacco (www.bacco.de/english/restaurant/restaurant.html) which I’d definately go back to and hosted a great evening…
…as for the  night, I’d been invited to the 1E TechEd Europe party at Spindler & Klatt www.spindlerklatt.de - an uuber trendy restaurant/club in East Berlin frequented by the likes of Angelina, Clooney, and now Cook!

What a great party and many many thanks to all the team at 1E (www.1e.com).  Did I mention I was the 4th member of the team in the founding year of the business but we went our separate ways (yes I probably did & several times ;-) ), oh for a few percent of that now… anyway, moving on!

Seriously though hats off to Samir, Mark, and Phil – they have built a company that knows how to throw a great party (regarded as the best at TechEd), and a team of very bright, talented people who have a lot of respect for the company and its founders.

Ouch my head is pounding!  time to go to sessions…

ITS211 Keeping Your CIO Happy: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SLA Scorecarding with Operations Manager 2007 and SQL Server 2008

Gordon McKenna & Sean Roberts speaking at TechEd
Presenters: Gordon McKenna, Sean Roberts, www.inframon.com
Thu 11/12 | 10:45-12:00 | London 2 – Hall 7-1b
Learn how you can create CIO level SLA scorecards in SharePoint Server 2007 for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 using some of the new features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services and to create Executive SLA views of your Operational Environment. The session looks at why these types of views are important to many companies, what impact this can have on your business, and what simple steps you can take to achieve very effective, high-level executive views of everything from performance and availability of your key LOB services and applications, whether important SLAs and KPIs are being achieved and whether your IT department is meeting the day-to-day needs of your business. The key demos in this session take you through the steps you need to implement effective business scorecarding in SharePoint Server 2007 using key metrics collected in the Operations Manager 2007 Datawarehouse based on “real-world” experiences gained from the field. After attending this presentation you will have a good insight into how CIO Scorecards can help you add value to your Operations Manager deployments, helping you to show real value to your executives.
Tip – to remove parameter data from Ops Mgr reports imported into a SharePoint webpart, suffix the url with &rc:Parameters=collapsed
Cracking session from Gordon & Sean on how to try and keep your CIO happy (if that’s possible! ;-) )
blog Daniel Savage

Service Level dashboard – free solution accelerator dashboard on Microsoft

SVR401 & 402 DirectAccess Technical Drilldown, Part 1 of 2: IPv6 and Transition Technologies + Part 2 of 2: Putting It All Together

John Cradock presents DirectAccess Technical Drilldown, Part 1 of 2: IPv6 and Transition Technologies

Presenter: John Craddock (www.xtseminars.co.uk)
Thu 11/12 | 13:30-14:45 | Helsinki – Hall 7-2a
Take a sprinkling of Windows 7, add Windows Server 2008 R2, IPv6 and IPsec and you have a solution that will allow direct access to your corporate network without the need for VPNs. Come to these demo-rich sessions and learn how to integrate DirectAccess into your environment. In Part 1 learn about IPv6 addressing, host configuration and transitioning technologies including 6to4, ISATAP, Teredo and IPHTTPS. Through a series of demos learn how to build an IPv6 Network and interoperate with IPv4 networks and hosts. In Part 2 we add the details of IPSec, and components that are only available with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to build the DirectAccess infrastructure. Learn how to control access to corporate resources and manage Internet connected PCs through group policy. Part 1 is highly recommended as a prerequisite for Part 2.
John Craddock is an extremely talented AD/identity expert, and deeply technical across many other fields – in this case IPv6 & DA.
I was also lucky enough to have a drink with John and my old Microsoft PSS chum Paul Duffy on Monday night at the cleverly named hotel ‘Berlin Berlin’.
John is a genuine international industry expert and a thoroughly nice bloke with it!   Paul, another ‘genie-I’ went on to become PM for Office Communicator and knows a thing or ten about OCS amongst other subjects to a deep level.  This probably explains why these two know each other!
Anyway, back to the session plus my own notes, links, etc.
Gems & Tips
- be careful, not all apps will be compatible – test!
- to be native will likely mean new network gear, is new network layer (layer 2 unchanged)
- hex is back!  use of double colon notation, but can only be used once per address
- cannot mix with ipV4 mask bit notation
- host derived with mac address which has privacy issues, Win7 & R2 generate random based on interface, can be disabled (revert to mac based) with netsh interface ipv6 set global randomizeidentifiers=disabled
- route print -6 will show IPv6 route table
- ::1 is IPv6 loopback
- if you have a registered IPv4 address then you automatically have an IPv6 address on the 6to4 network
6to4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6to4 states 6to4 performs three functions:
  1. Assigns a block of IPv6 address space to any host or network that has a global IPv4 address.
  2. Encapsulates IPv6 packets inside IPv4 packets for transmission over an IPv4 network using 6in4.
  3. Routes traffic between 6to4 and “native” IPv6 networks.

- you need to manually unblock ISATAP entry in DNS which can be done via the registry or command line, e.g.

C:\>dnscmd /config /globalqueryblocklist wpad

Registry property globalqueryblocklist successfully reset.
Command completed successfully.

ISATAP is a huge subject in it’s own right, the Intra-site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol Deployment Guide is available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0f3a8868-e337-43d1-b271-b8c8702344cd&displaylang=en

Putting it all together..

- Check tunnel endpoint authentication using ‘klist’ to list Kerberos data
- Use NRTP to direct DNS queries to a specific server for a particular names space (view using ‘netsh namespace show effectivepolicy’)
- PKI needs to be right as certificates are the foundations
- you must publish the revocation list
- NLS (Nework Location Server) is just a https website accessible from the DA server, e.g. nls.corp.example.com
- if it doesn’t work, it could be a couple of days troubleshooting!

 

DAT312 All You Needed to Know about Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering

Presenter: Gopal Ashok
Thu 11/12 | 17:00-18:15 | London 3 – Hall 7-1b
There are major architectural changes in SQL Server 2008 for failover cluster setup and management, geared towards increased reliability and high-availability. To learn all the benefits and changes, attend this session for a comprehensive overview direct from the product development group. We cover SQL Server 2008 failover clustering setup, underlying Windows Server cluster and how SQL Server uses it, what’s new in SQL Server 2008 for failover clustering, differences from previous versions of SQL Server and future directions. This includes details of SQL Server 2008 failover clustering setup operations together with demos to illustrate the new setup.

- new features
- applications need retry mechanisms built in to provide seamless failover
- no longer have to take down the cluster to upgrade, supports rolling upgrades

Want to deploy stretched clusters?  lots do.  As in separate geo-redundant clusters, not separate nodes e.g.

Stretched SQL Clusters or the doodles of an artist?

Stretched SQL Clusters or the doodles of an artist?

- sql 2008 failover clustering install breaks on windows server 2008 R2 and needs to be slipstreamed with SP1 (If only we knew this last weekend!)
(slipstreaming is incorporating patches into the installation media to effect a higher level of install base over RTM – Microsoft tend to do this but not always quickly!)
see http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2009/03/17/how-to-fix-your-sql-server-2008-setup-before-you-run-setup-part-ii.aspx for more info
- during upgrades to a 2-node cluster there will be a period of time when you are exposed to node failure, and must not have a failover attempt for fear of corruption.  removing the node from the cluster owners will stop premature attempted failover.

Further Microsoft resources.. (will add others also)

      SQL Server ® 2008 Failover Clustering White Paper: http://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2009/07/08/sql-server-2008-failover-clustering.aspx

      Recommended  Books Online  Doc Refresh #7 (May, 2009), or later: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms130214.aspx

      Failover Clusters – Getting Started: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189134.aspx

      Rolling upgrade process and best practice: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191295.aspx

      Maintaining a Failover Cluster: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178061.aspx

      Setup command line usage: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144259.aspx

      Configuration.ini file usage: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd239405.aspx

 

Microsoft tech•ed Europe 2009, Berlin, 11 November 2009

Published 11 November 2009 Data Protection Manager , Exchange 2010 , Hyper-V , Microsoft , SharePoint , System Center , Systems Management , Tech , Training , Virtualisation , Windows 7 , Windows Server 2008 R2 Leave a Comment
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A daily update from Microsoft tech•ed Europe 2009, Berlin, 8-13 November 2009

Not the best day for me in terms of TechEd objectives (i.e. attending learning sessions, etc.) with the first post of the day saying ‘decisions decisions… for sessions just 09:00-10:15′ as struggled to choose between:

DAT302 Top 10 Best Practices for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services
or
MGT11-IS Get Virtualized with Microsoft System Center Essentials!
or
OFS322 Overview of Social Computing in SharePoint 2010
or
SVR207 Windows Server 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure: Managing your file data more effectively.
or
SVR319 Multi-Site Clustering with Windows Server 2008 R2

Ended up doing none of the above, but did have a productive breakfast meeting with Stuart Leddy, UK Windows Server Product Marketing Manager.  Stuart has been heading up the Windows Server 2008 R2 UK EAP activities that we have been involved in with Ascom Network Testing (http://blog.thefullcircle.com/2009/11/05/the-full-circle-secures-ascom-network-testing-for-windows-server-2008-r2-early-adopter-program/)

The day turned into going from one full session to the next, and walking back and forth for what seemed like miles in between!
my TechEd tip for the day - for popular sessions get there 10 minutes before they start!

Eventually did get into a 1st choice session I wanted at 12:20…

MGT03-DEMO Introduction to Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010

Presenters: Ravikiran Chintalapudi, David Mills, Eamon O’Reilly, Jeremy Winter
 
Come see the new customer-driven enhancements and fully integrated virtual management capabilities in the next release of Microsoft’s unified IT Management solution for medium-sized businesses, System Center Essentials 2010!
 
- great product, can manage 50 servers and 200 clients
 
 

SVR307 Security Best Practices for Hyper-V and Server Virtualisation

Jeff Woolsey, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Virtualization
http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/

Virtualisation is one of the hottest topics in IT today and security is a top priory for IT staff. In this session we cover security best practices for Hyper-V and introduce the Hyper-V Security Guide. This guide is Microsoft’s reference for hardening servers running Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V enabled.

- Use of BitLocker
- AV scanning of offline VHD images… stale/dormant VMs that get reintroduced to the corporate network then can wreak havoc to new vulnerability exploits.  first product to do this is McAfee VirusScan Enterprise for Offline Virtual Images (rolls off the toungue!)
- AV configuration… added benefit of passthrough disks – host AV will scan these disks.  install AV on the guests!
- VHD performance, 2nd most popular VM workload in Microsoft is SQL! fixed disk performance is now on par with raw/real disk!  but remember spindles still count!
- Dynamic VHDs are now up to 15x faster with R2 – still a 10-15% performance hit over fixed, and the risk of disk over commit
- Multipath I/O (MPIO) in R2 & Win7 is soo much easier with iSCSI Quick Connect
- Advanced Storage Capabilities… storage dedupe and replication, if it is block based it will work
Hyper-V Networking – don’t forget the parent is a VM too!  the Hypervisor slides in beneath the O/S once enabled.  More NICs the better, min 2, min 3 with iSCSI
Jumbo Frames… Significant performance increases, but the infrastructure must support it.  also needs to be end-to-end.  confirm test with ping host -l 4000 -f – if you get a response you have jumbo frames
Virtual Machine Queues - Hyper-V R2 supports processing offloading to newer network adaptors (Intel, Broadcom, etc.), most benefit with 10Gb/E
- more tips… turn off screen savers in guests, in Windows Server 2003 create using 2-way to ensure MP HAL

more of a best practise and walkthrough of some basic tasks like not forgetting to install Intergration Component, good session and great blogger (not me – Jeff! ;-) )

 

DAT301 Building and Implementing a High Availability Strategy for Your Enterprise

Presenter: Gopal Ashok
Wed 11/11 | 17:30-18:45 | London 3 – Hall 7-1b
Every business has mission-critical applications running on Microsoft SQL Server that require maximum uptime. Some application data is more critical than others and requires strict guarantees with regard to data loss. Depending on the application requirements and IT constraints, the availability strategy and corresponding technology choices will vary. As an architect, DBA, or IT admin it is important to develop the right HA strategy and corresponding solution which meets the availability requirement and at the same time provides the cost benefit for your organisation. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Always On Technologies provide a full range of options to minimise downtime and maintain appropriate levels of application availability. Come to this session to learn how to develop a comprehensive HA solution using the Always On technologies. The session walks you through the various technologies and features, providing a cost-benefit analysis and comparison, talks about the key decision points to consider when choosing a technology, and showcases real-world examples of how these technologies are currently used to provide a High Availability solution for various customer environments around the world.

Microsoft tech•ed Europe 2009, Berlin, 9 November 2009

Published 9 November 2009 Exchange 2010 , Hyper-V , Microsoft , Systems Management , Tech , Training , Virtualisation , Windows 7 , Windows Server 2008 R2 Leave a Comment
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<if you are reading this the week of 9th November then apologies up front, its published but is really a working draft>

Microsoft TechEd Europe 2009, Berlin 8-13th November, 2009

So this week I’m a TechEd & Berlin virgin, although I guess I’m not alone as there are over 7200 people from 104 countries attending this event! (ignore the later picture, it’s out of date before it was taken).

MD of German MS Business

www.citymosiac.de – Berlin Social Media project to mark 20yrs since collapse of the Berlin Wall

Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft Business Division
you can’t save your way to success, simply cost cutting not the answer
do more with less has become “with less, do more” – the new efficiency
UK govnt. Embracing cloud computing to increase efficiencies

Customer evidence from Statoil (Petter Wersland), NASDAQ OMX (Carl-Magnus Hallberg), Chester Zoo (Phil Morris)

Statoil – Exchange 2010 TAP, reduced storage by 60% but increased mailbox size 40-fold!
Identity & access & the cloud – complexities need to be addressed.

NASDAQ – latency issues due to disperse geography with low-long bandwidth, use of Win7 & Branch-cache.  Emphasis on IT & technology alignment with business projects, close to the strategy of the business.

Chester Zoo – Virtualisation saved £11K in electricity alone, being a Zoo obvious green agenda alignment.  Chester Zoo installed 50km of fibre optics, and have wireless cameras throughout the complex, inc. In cages – IT manager has been attacked by monkeys.. (literally!)

Windows 7 had over 7m beta users
Win7 was the biggest pre-order product on amazon.co.uk, dethroning Harry Potter “Windows 7 is King””  (oh dear!)

Cloud Computing

Microsoft Online Services

Exchange Online – adopters inc. GSK, Aeon, etc,  often in conjunction with on premises Exchange

Exchange 2010 GA today, RTM launch

Julia White, Director, Exchange 2010 Product Team

Demoed a mailbox move whilst in use…. err? Is that new?  Didn’t show the client at the end of the move process… was there a prompt?

Exchange 2010 mail tips that advise the user of issues before they click send, e.g. incorrect distribution groups, Out of Office, etc.

Speech to text and vice-versa

Outlook Web Access now, Outlook Web App

Unified Messaging improvements, also integrated into OWA

Transport rules that can apply actions to email types regardless of sender choices (or lack of – e.g. adding DRM to certain types of email)

DRM working across access types (mobile, browser… demo used FireFox)

Multi-mailbox search capabilities

Forester claim a complete ROI on Exchange 2010 deployment in 6 months!
Various ForeFront launches announced today

 

IT Infrastructure

Apparently (allegedly) 70% of the world’s servers are running Windows

-          Windows Server 2008 R2 stats – 460,000 downloads thus far

Robert Whabe, Corporate VP, Microsoft Server & Tools Business

Evolution of the Datacenter – green IT, virtualisation moving to private then public cloud

BranchCache reduced MS Mexico sales office bandwidth by 90%

SCOM/OpsMgr Dashboard demo showing KPI & summarised

Jeff Wettlaufer, Technical PM, System Center
Bunch of redelivered stuff around SCVMM e.g. PRO, Live Migration, power mgmt, etc.

 

Devlopers! Developers! Devlopers!

An auditorium for over 7000

Many signs pointing to TechEd, but where is it?!?!

F'F'F'Five degrees in Berlin

Microsoft Partner Network 2009, Wembley Stadium, October 7th 2009

Published 7 October 2009 Exchange 2010 , Hyper-V , Microsoft , Tech , Windows 7 , Windows Server 2008 R2 Leave a Comment

Today attending the Microsoft Partner Network 2009 at Wembley!

What Microsoft had to say before the event…

Event Overview
Please join the Microsoft UK team and a number of our executives for our primary UK channel event, Microsoft Partner Network 2009.
Targeted at Partner executive level contacts and sales leads we want to provide you with insights into Microsoft’s current strategies, the direction of our business, a selection of the innovative technology we’re launching this year and how we hope to work with you, our Partners, to drive joint success.

It’s a big year as we transition the Microsoft Partner Programme to the Microsoft Partner Network and we want to take the time to ensure you are getting the most out of your relationship with Microsoft.

This event will take a fresh look at the market opportunities, highlight potential strategies to ensure you continue to be ready to meet customers’ needs, and are ready and able to exploit opportunities that arise.

Exploring Microsoft Technology – James Akrigg, UK & British! Microsoft Technology Specialist

SharePoint on the Internet
investors in people and Ferrari website is SharePoint!

The Windows Wiggle ;-)

Business value benefits of Windows 7…
Power saving via group policy
City of Miami claim $53 per desktop per year
Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 – Direct Access… no more VPN!
Bitlocker to go – USB key encryption

R2 & Hyper-V – Live Migration, etc.

New version of SCE 2010 launched last week

UM demo with LCS, Exchange, Outlook to setup a conference call from a calendar item.

Live speech to text demo and it worked!

Windows phone announced yesterday

Microsoft Innovation – Andrew Herbert, MD MS Research Cambridge

MS Cambridge Labs…
F#
next version of xbox with vision technology for natural user interface

“create seamless experiences that combine the power of software across the Internet using any device”

More at Microsoft Research

UK Perspective – Gordon Frazer, GM Microsoft UK

“the biggest room in my house is the room for improvement!” ;-)

R&D $9.5B – long term, tenacious innovation

The Journey to Success – Andrew Akrigg
The tools are there – use them!
e.g.
Microsoft GearUp Toolkit

Product Lifecyle information (www link…)

Microsoft Pinpoint

Microsoft RSS feeds

Microsoft Partner Player (web link)

Doing more…
MVP program
sharing your code on codeplex

IAMCP UK chapter meeting – 10th Sept. 2009

Published 10 September 2009 Microsoft , Tech , Windows 7 , Windows Server 2008 R2 Leave a Comment
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Today attended the International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners (IAMCP UK) UK chapter meeting hosted at Microsoft’s very swish London Victoria offices.

IAMCP U.K Chapter Meeting Agenda

Date:            Thursday, 10th September, 2009.
Location:       Microsoft, 100 Victoria St, London, SW1E 5JL.
Timings:        09:30 to 14:00 

Time Slot: Agenda Item: Presenter:
09:30 Arrival and registration

 

  
10:00 Introduction; IAMCP Overview and Updates Kelvin Kirby, Chairman, IAMCP UK Chapter
10:15 Overview of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Aileen Hannah & Gareth Hall, Microsoft
10:50 Windows® Azure™ Platform – What does it mean to me? Dan Scarfe, Chief Executive, Dot Net Solutions
11.15 BREAK

 

  
11.30 Surviving in the Current Market Conditions Darren Shirlaw, Shirlaws

 
12.15 An Overview of the UK Public Sector ICT Market Stephen Roberts, Principal Analyst, Kable
12:45 Voices for Innovation Update Donna Whitehead, VFI

 
12:55 Close & Wrap Up

 

  
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch and Networking Partners are encouraged to stay and network over lunch.

 Aileen Hannah – Launch Lead for Windows Client
  Windows 7E (EU version) – dropped, Win7 in EU will be full product
  “Microsoft are 100% confident that 98% of Vista apps will work on Win7” (not inc. Security s/w! ;-)
  Win7 DirectAccess – needs Windows Server 2008 R2 on back-end
  Win7 BranchCache – works with R2, but also will do P2P without R2
  Windows 7 Manageability
   Problem Recorder – automate screen grabs and email to support! J
   Troubleshooting Assistant
   MDOP costs $6 /seat /annum

brains and beauty... 2008 R2 & Windows 7 works better together ;-)

Gareth Hall – Windows Server Product Manager, UK
  “$3B of investment covered in 3 minutes!” ;-)
  Windows 7 & R2 is a combined sell – massive interest in both, ‘work better together’
  R2 upgrades do not require new CAL licensing, full version do
  Value of Windows Server practise – costs more, takes longer to implement… customer benefit? ;-)
  R2 Active Directory Recycle Bin – ever spent 3 weeks trying to recover a bad AD object delete?
  DirectAccess – takes  a lot of setting up, but is very compelling.  Already IPv6 then easy, who is!?
  (services opportunity)
 
Dan Scarfe – CEO, Dot Net Solutions: Windows Azure Platform – What does it mean to me?
   “.NET for the Data Center”
  Azure (www.azure.com/PartnerQuickstart) is made up of:
    Windows Azure (Compute, Storage, Management)
    SQL Azure (Relational data, Management)
    .NET Services (Connectivity, Access Control) EasyJet are trialling connectivity from mobile devices to check-in systems so your mobile device will register you for check-in whilst you are in the queue.
  Generation 4 data centers – Chicago, IL 700,000 sq.ft (16 football fields), 60 megawatts, Dublin, 303,000 sq.ft (8 football fields), 22.2 megawatts – more DC’s planned
   Containers full of servers, whole container is connected, cannot walk inside, if a server goes down it is marked as bad like a sector on a disk, eventually the whole container is swapped out best energy efficiency for data center technology in the world
  Same platform as MS Online offerings (Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics)
  Azure app development is very easy for .NET developers
  Pricing – pay as you go, charges based on metering
  If going for a cloud based solutions you really are getting into bed with the vendor, it had better be the right one as bed hopping has serious ramifications!

Windows 7 Build 7000 upgrade of Vista Media Center

Published 16 January 2009 Media Center , Microsoft , Tech , Windows 7 Leave a Comment
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Today, I finally upgraded our trusty homebrew Vista Media Center (VMC) system to the Windows 7 public beta (Build 7000) in the thought that by now it should be pretty solid and the obvious issues resolved…

The new Windows 7 media center UI is great!, although in the guide the dynamic column for the channels can mean that you end up with less guide content on right hand pane than in the previous VMC…. it is very early days though, and looking great thus far! :-)

The dual-tuner issue currently doing the rounds on TGB (see http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/326470.aspx) is a real pain, and will prevent me from testing this build on my primary media center which is a shame for us all – me to wow guests, wife, etc. with what’s new coming down the line, and Microsoft for the feedback. I’m a diligent tester and on the WHS PP2 connect beta (as in feedback), was on the EBS TAP last year (inc. Redmond airlift), and have a good media center environment for testing (WHS plus XBox360 & Linksys extenders used as primary devices, both wired & wireless).
I also evangelize media center and have built several systems for friends & family using VMC, but built like a good custom installer/OEM with years of experience in corporate deployment (not just thrown on like your average Dell build! ;-) )

Good job I took a WIM (imagex) image of the VMC build before deploying Windows 7 and copied it to an archive just in case the USB drive fails… might need it before the weekend is out! :-(

Interestingly the cleaned images before and after upgrade are very similar in size...

 

 

 

 

As I was updating this post my wife came down from out bedroom (Linksys DMA2100 extender) cursing as the bloody TV isn’t working again (again..?!?! come on that isn’t fair!), we eventually ascertain it is defiantly not as stable as before… looks aren’t everything I tell myself hmmm…. a hasty retreat me thinks! (maybe a clean build, rather than upgrade is needed..? I’d better get my coat!).

 

This is a double shame, and an embarrassing one at that! Only earlier I’d rather prematurely and enthusiastically Emailed a couple of friends who I foolishly thought would benefit from Win7MC… I can’t think of the beating they would give me for blaming me as their wives & children left them for turning their perfectly working VMC digital home into a digital junk yard! ;-) okay okay! I know it’s Beta software! (I should know better!).

Subject: Upgrade to your Media Center… Windows 7 Media Center beta… Windows 7 Media Center Revealed | We Got Served

 

http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2008/10/28/windows-7-media-center-revealed/

 

When we spoke today and I mentioned distractions… rather than doing much needed accounts & finance stuff I was about to take an image of our media center pre install of the first public beta of Windows 7. Windows 7 is the next big thing to be released from Microsoft in time for next Christmas, or maybe earlier…

 

I upgraded our Vista Media Center (very similar build to yours) this afternoon so all programs, settings, content, etc. remained intact and it works a dream thus far (only been running about 3hrs… ;-)

 

Lots of nice new, cool features, including one you may be interested in… native support for H.264 / HiDef TV broadcast (no cards yet mind), and Blu-Ray! :-) Oh and it’s noticeably faster than Vista as it has less demands on the system – does more on less hardware, maybe even as quick as XP ;-)

 

Btw, this beta lasts until end of August 2009, and in the coming months there will be more which will last beyond this (unless of course they release the final code).

 

So if either of you are interested (suggest an image 1st) let me know and we can sort it.

 

If you are brave, you can download from here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx and do it yourself, if not so brave just watch the videos… http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-videos.aspx


NightNight!