Aidan Finn, IT Pro

Back in October I posted some information about the then forthcoming Desktop Opimisation Pack (Optimization for anyone with a USA spell checker!).  I just noticed on Bink today that the pack is now available to download on the MSVL site. 

This pack will be of great use to anyone who is considering deploying Windows Vista in the near future.  I won’t rehash everything I wrote before … you can read that in my original post.  But this pack will aid systems administrators in the deployment and management of their desktop network:

• Application deployment will become a breeze where you will no longer have to worry about applications working on Vista or with each other.
• Group Policy management can become more structured and controlled.
• Detailed information (even more than SMS can do!) about the deployed applications can be gathered.
• Helpdesk will be armed with desktop diagnostics and repair tools.

Each of this suites is a result of Microsoft acquisitions of best of breed, innovative solutions in the last year: Softricity, Winternals, AssetMetrix and DesktopStandard.

Here’s the bad news.  This pack is only available to software assurance customers.  Considering how PO’d many people are with SA after the XP "experience" I don’t think many will re-up this time around, despite the promise of a new release of Windows Vista "R2" in two years time.  This will also alienate customers who cannot afford or justify SA, probably leaving them on XP or W2K for many more years.  And as far as I know (I could be wrong here), the Desktop Optimisation Pack still will cost around $10/seat for SA customers.

We’ve seen Microsoft change some licensing terms for the benefit of customers in recent years, e.g. Virtual Server and Virtual PC so I really hope they change their minds about restricting this pack to SA customers only.

ENN is reporting that the Irish public sector is to spend big money this year on IT.  We all know about the PPARS types scandals.  This years spend is going to be focused on consolidation.  The growing opinion in the Irish market is that the past spend on "iron" has often been unwarranted.  Last year saw increased interest and marketing in virtualistion technologies for server consolidation.  I also think that the irish market is starting to understand that Microsoft solutions are scalable and don’t require the distributed "computer room in every office" approach of the past.  In my only brief encounter with public sector (a very progressive department) last year it was clear that there was keen interest in virtualisation.

I just saw on Bink that Virtual PC 2007 Release Candidate is available for download on Connect.  Some new features have been added to VPC 2007:

• Support for Intel and AMD hardware assisted virtualisation.  You will need a hotfix that is on the beta site if running AMD hardware assistance and a 64 bit host OS.
• PXE support is added for network installs, e.g. SMS OS deployment pack, CM 2007, RIS or WDS.
• Support for Vista as (1) a host and (2) a guest operating system.
• Support for 64 bit host operating systems. 
• There is allegedly a 64 bit and a 32bit version.  That was the claim on the site with the last beta release but when I installed it on Vista x64 it installed as a 32 bit version and support claimed there only was a 32 bit version of VPC.

It’s disappointing not to see 64 bit support for guests.  VMware keeps its advantage here.

Maybe I’m becoming an old fart but that year just absolutely flew for me.  I can’t believe that 12 months has just come and gone.  It’s been a hectic year for me.  I had a great two weeks on safari in Tanzania … I’ll never forget those sleepless nights, camping out in the Serengeti plains with a pride of Lions roaring all night long about 1 mile away or being woken up by Elephants ripping down the trees right outside our tent.  And the Niners improved a bit.  I also can’t believe that week 17 is here.  Oh well, that means my favourite time of year is upon us … NFL Playoffs!

There was the first Minasi-palooza in Virginia Beach where loads of us from MR&D got to meet for the first time.  I got myself truly entrenched into the contracting way of life.  I had some interesting work including a 2003/AD/XP/SMS/MOM design & consulting project at a University, winning tenders, giving presentations for the first time in yoinks.  There was also the work I’d like to forget such as working with Sinmantec AV and CA Arserve/Brightscare for the first and hopefully last time.  I also started blogging for the first time a few months back when I decided to delve back into contracting after a brief return to consulting.

So what’s up for 2007?  You may have noticed that MS has and continues to launch a blitzkrieg of releases.  I’ve started playing with Vista, mainly on the deployment side because that’s where I’m usually asked to work with desktops.  There’s also some releases coming up in March/April that I’m interested in, i.e. SCCM and SCOM 2007.  I’m going to spend a lot of time working on SCCM 2007 in the next month or so.  Later in the year we’ve got a very important release in Windows "Longhorn" Server.  All signs indicate that it’s on course and looking good.  The second annual Minasi-Palooza (I wonder if we’ve got an official name for it yet) is taking place in May in Virginia Beach.  Loads more are coming this time around.  I’m all booked for that and am due to be giving presentations on Windows 2003 R2 Branch Office technology (I might expand this to other technologies given the time slot I have) and SCCM 2007.  We’ve got more time and some special guests lined up.

Outside of work I’m really hoping to get on a decent holiday later in 2007.  I was hoping to go to Kenya’s Masai Mara on safari at the start of the Autumn dry season but I’m also kinda eager to go to India on a Tiger safari.  Who knows?  That’ll all depend if I can get some work 🙂  I’ll also be out and about with my camera gear, often dressed like an army dropout and sitting in some damp ditch.  Maybe Santa was late and will still bring me that Canon 1D N mk II with the 600mm F4?

Have a great and safe new year!

Bink just posted a link to a KB article that will get adminpak up and running on Windows Vista.  Even when you get it up and running there’s still a bunch of gotcha’s and exceptions.  My advice … run a Windows XP VM on your Vista machine and do all of your administration from there.  Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 is free and VPC 2007 is available on beta and looks pretty stable.

The first of the 2007 editions of TechNet Magazine is available online for you to read.  This month’s emphasis is on Sharepoint 2007.  I like the concept of Sharepoint … I really like it.  I’ve used Sharepoint Portal 2003 on a limited basis and could really see how it makes life better for administrators and the business.

2007 takes that further.  I’m really hoping they’ve sorted out the mess that is Sharepoint backup/recovery.  I’ve not had a chance to look at WSS 2007 or Portal 2007 (aka Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007, aka MOSS 2007) … there’s just not enough of me to go around.  If your client or business has a need to work in a dynamic and global/national manner then you really need to check out WSS 2007 and Portal 2007.  This magazine will give you a taste of what is available.

As part of Microsofts strategy, Exchange 2007 includes extended support for the Powersheel scripting platform.  A set of sample scripts has been released by Mihai Jalobeanu and Vivek Sharma.

Powershell is Microsofts new scripting platform.  The aim of it is to provide an object oriented and simple scripting language that is function rich and simple to use.  For someone like me who was brought up on COBOL, C and C++, it does take a while to get my head around some of it.  But … it does appear to offer the ability to do in one sentence what could take a page in VBS.

I did the one day partner training on MS Exchange.  The emphasis was definitely on scripting.  It even appeared that some functionality was only available in scripts.  One cool script, that is in this free script pack, was used in the class to automatically balance the number of mailboxes between 2 mail stores.

Microsoft will be continuing this trend with Powershell.  Expect to see extended support for it included in all future major releases.  You’ll then have one common scripting platform across all Microsoft products, making life easier for overstressed admins.

Exchange 2007 is now available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers to download.  It’s a single download for Standard and Enterprise editions.  It’s been available on MSVL for a few weeks now.

I just finished my current contract a couple of hours ago.  I will be available for contracting work in the Dublin area from January 8th onwards.  So if you need someone to do Windows Server, Windows Vista, Active Directory, MOM 2005, SMS 2003, etc work then please do check out my CV/resume.  Please check out some of my documentation on this blog or on my personal website to see what my work is like.  You can contact me by mail on website <at> highwaycsl.com.  We can then arrange to have a chat and see where things go.

Beta testers and TAP customers have recieved access to a new Customer Technical Preview build of Windows Server "Longhorn".  The bad weather in Redmond has led to delays in the upload to MSDN and TechNet.  It should be available to those customers in about a week or so.  I’m planning to download it then.  It’ll be my first hands-on with the product.