Windows 7 - Windows XP Mode Direct Download Link

For some strange reason we cannot seem to get the download started for the RTM version of Windows 7’s Windows XP Mode.

Here are the direct download links:

• Windows XP Mode (EXE)
• Windows Virtual PC x86 (MSU)
• Windows Virtual PC x64 (MSU)

The download page is here:

• Windows Virtual PC

While Windows XP Mode will certainly deal with the issue of needing to run legacy applications on or under Windows 7, it is far from the best answer.

We have had a need to implement XP Mode for our accounting firm clients due to the need to run a lot of applications that are just not coded for the Windows Vista/7 platform.

As a result, we have some first-hand experience. We will leave those experiences for another post. Suffice it to say that XP Mode will work, but it may not be a very satisfactory solution in the long run.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Windows 7 – Create and Mount a VHD

We have a need to insert ShadowProtect image files into a VHD for recovery purposes. To date, we would attached the drive with the images to a server and then share it so that we could get access to it via network.

There are other solutions available for this task, but for now we have not had a lot of need to look any further.

Windows 7 solves this dilemma by allowing us to create and mount a VHD (Virtual Hard Drive) on the Windows 7 system we are working on. This enables us to attach the USB drive and copy the ShadowProtect files right into a VHD which we can then mount in the Virtual Machine that we will run a recovery to.

The process is actually quite simple:

1. Start –> DiskMgmt.msc [Enter].
2. Click Action and Create VHD.
3. The Create and Attach Virtual Hard Disk window comes up:
   
4. Set the name and location of the new VHD file, the size of the file in MB or GB, and whether it will be dynamic or fixed in size.
5. A new disk will appear in the Disk Management Console:
6. Right click under the Disk # and Initialize the disk.
7. Once the disk is initialized, it can be formatted and have a drive letter assigned to it.
8. AutoPlay will pop up asking what we want to do with the new drive (for the time being as AutoPlay will be disabled soon in Windows)

We do not close the Drive Management console as it is needed to detach the VHD once we are done with it. To detach, right click under Disk # in the list of disks and Detach VHD.

To attach a VHD, in Drive Management we click on the Action menu item and Attach VHD. Once we specify the VHD file we are good to go with our edits, changes, or file insertion.

This is a real time saving feature for us when we need to make quick changes to a VHD file, run a check disk on a seemingly corrupt VHD, or create a VHD and install files such as service packs or install files for VM access.

Very Nice!! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Windows 7 – XP Pro Mode is Virtualized XP Professional

Damir Bersinic and John Bristowe were presenting to our Edmonton Microsoft User Group this evening on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

A new feature that can be installed with Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate is XP Pro Mode. These OSs will be licensed for 1 instance. For those who have Windows Vista Software Assurance tied into the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, the number of XP Pro Mode instances that can be run on a workstation covered by MDOP is 4!

Essentially, it is a VHD of Windows XP Professional that resides on the user’s system. Whenever there is a need for an application such as Internet Explorer 6 or a legacy application that will not run on a 64bit operating system or Windows 7 in general, they can be installed into the Windows XP Professional VM.

For the user, all they need to know is how to go to the XP Mode folder (exact name not known yet) under All Programs and click on that application’s icon.

They will be presented with the application’s “window” which will in fact be a TSApps session into the Windows XP Professional VM. Sound familiar to our Mac users? ;)

The solution utilizes a number of different virtualization and application delivery technologies to make sure the user can do their job without thinking about how things are working underneath it all!

The VM is somewhat manageable just as a Virtual PC 2007 VM would be. It can be connected to the local network via bridge, the Windows 7 workstation can provide NAT services for the VM so that it can access the Internet, or it can run without any network connectivity at all.

When bridged into the domain, and subsequently joined to the domain, the XP Pro VM will require the same considerations as any physical or Hyper-V based virtual machine running the OS would:

• Patch management.
• AntiVirus and Malware protection.
• Group Policy structures for the VM and others like it.

Now, the above assumes a small network where there will be no centralized management of the XP Pro Mode VMs.

For larger organizations, the XP Pro Mode VMs are a part of Microsoft’s new virtualization product called Microsoft MED-V. The VMs can be managed down to almost the minutest detail.

We can see a use for Windows 7 XP Pro Mode for some of our clients that have Line of Business Applications that will not cooperate with Windows Vista or now Windows 7.

The catch is though, having these VMs on the client systems introduces another level of complexity, disaster recovery elements, and management needs.

Apparently the Release Candidate getting released for us on TechNet this Thursday and to the general public in the first week of May will have the ability to enable XP Pro Mode.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2008 - Some test lab considerations

One of the major questions we need to ask ourselves when we are going to test a new server OS or workstation OS product is: how?

Some criteria to consider in that how:

• Internet connection.
• Static IP with URL A for DNS, MX for mail, SSL.
• dDNS setup.
• No Internet connection at all.
• SBS 2003/8 specific: Remote Web Workplace functionality.
• Server or workstation hardware
• Virtualized OSs.
• Terminal Services
• Group Policy settings from OU structure right through to the minutest GPO and its settings.
• Workstations.
• Hardware or Virtualized.
• XP Pro and/or Vista Business/Ultimate
• Microsoft Office version
• Line of Business Applications

The above list is by no means complete. But, it does give us food for thought.

For us, the imperative when looking to test a beta product, SBS 2008 for example, is to make sure that we have a setup that is close to what a real production environment would be like.

This imperative becomes all the more important as we began to realize just how much SBS 2008 has changed over SBS 2003. We absolutely needed an Internet connection with at least a dDNS setup or, in our case, a dedicated static IP with the proper DNS settings in place.

As an example, we wanted to run through setting up SSL with a third party certificate for Remote Web Workplace because the new Getting Started Tasks contained a wizard just for that purpose. With that cert in place, the next step was figuring out how to make ISA 2004/6 work with the SBS 2008 RWW setup and so on.

When it comes to our client specific setups, we create a lab environment that mirrors their production environment. It is then critical for us to provide the necessary infrastructure to facilitate the mirror. To some extent, virtualization can help a lot here, but not completely.

In the case of SBS 2008, as mentioned in previous posts, we have a couple of lab setups in the shop. The critical one for us right now is the Springer Spaniels SBS 2008 setup that is a part of the book that I am co-authoring with Harry Brelsford.

It is the Springers' lab setup that needs to be stable and properly configured as our other lab setup is the one we like to blow up by doing silly things like enabling the Intel ProSet NIC Teaming settings and then running the wizards ... can you say reinstall anyone? ;)

This is an overview of the Springers' lab:

• Intel X3070 Xeon Dual Core CPU on an Intel S3000AHLX server board, 8GB Kingston ECC Intel approved RAM, Intel SRCSASRB RAID controller in RAID 0+1 with 4x 320GB Seagate ES series hard drives for a total of 640GB of storage.
• SBS 2008 RC1 is installed and in the process of being configured.
• 4x workstations configured as follows:
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Intel DQ965GF or Intel DQ35JO motherboard , 6-8GB Kingston RAM, 2x 320GB Seagate ES or AS series hard drive in RAID 1 via on board RAID controller all tucked into an Antec Minute 300 or 350 for space saving.
• Windows Vista Ultimate x64.
• Workstation VM setup:
• Station 1: 4x Windows XP Pro VMs using our TechNet Plus for licensing (lab).
• Station 2: 4x Windows XP Pro VMs using our TechNet Plus for licensing (lab).
• Station 3: 2x Windows XP Pro, 2x Windows Vista Ultimate VMs using TechNet Plus (lab).
• Station 4: Server 2003 R2 Std for ISA (TechNet in lieu of Open Lic.), Server 2008 Std x64 (SBS 08 RC1 Premium).
• Network Setup:
• Internet static IP bound to our own ISA 2004 (on SBS R2 Premium) with DNS A, MX, SPF records in place for springersltd.com.
• The Springers' SBS 2008 box sits behind a D-Link DI-604 consumer router with a publishing rule on our ISA 2004 to allow it out only.
• D-Link internal Springers' IP range: 192.168.99.0/24
• D-Link WAN port IP: 192.168.125.210 (reservation on our internal SBS DHCP setup)
• Our ISA 2004 has the Springers' SSL certificate bound a publishing rule set to allow HTTPS and SharePoint 987 to forward to the D-Link's internal IP. The D-Link forwards those to the Springers' SBS 2008 box.
• Our ISA 2004 also has VPN and SMTP for the springersltd.com forwarded to the D-Link then on to the Springers' SBS 2008 box.

We have limited the number of virtual workstations to 4 per physical workstation as we plan on stress testing the setup by having a number of people logging in at the same time as the Springers' users. They will do things like run Outlook to create and send e-mail, Word documentation, SharePoint, and the like.

Yes, the workstation grade hardware hosting the VMs will not necessarily provide the "real world" experience like having those desktops on a Hyper-V enabled server with a high performance RAID array setup and a couple of cores assigned to each would provide, however, it will give us some indications as to how the Xeon 3070 will hold up under 10 users with a number of the server services in use simultaneously.

Note that the D-Link is a temporary measure until we reach the stage where we are installing the Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard server that is a part of the SBS 2008 Premium setup. When we have reached that stage, then, we will look at setting up ISA on Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard either as a VM, or if we have a spare box kicking around, a dedicated hardware solution.

There is a significant cost in time and equipment in the lab setups we have. It only makes sense that if we want to provide the best possible product knowledge to facilitate our ability to provide our clients with the best solutions for their needs, then we need to invest time and money.

This is critical: The closer and closer we get to the Cloud and its opportunities and pitfalls, the more our knowledge and experience will be the key to us and our I.T. company moving forward successfully.

Take careful note: The "we" and "our" in the above sentence means every single employee and contractor that works with us under this umbrella we call MPECS Inc. It also means our clients and their feedback, the vendor contacts we work with, our peers in the local I.T. industry, and you our blog readers that provide excellent feedback for us to build on.

Ultimately, it will be our teamwork that carries us through this transition period.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.