An Interesting Read – Keylogger Found On Factory Original Samsung Laptops

Remember the Sony Rootkit fiasco not so long ago?

In the following two part article on the Network World Web site, it looks as though Samsung is placing a clandestine product on their laptops that logs keystrokes:

1. NetworkWorld: Samsung installs keylogger on its laptop computers: Part 1 – Discovery
2. NetworkWorld: Samsung responds to installation of keylogger on its laptop computers (Part 2)

To quote Part 2:

“The supervisor who spoke with me was not sure how this software ended up in the new laptop thus put me on hold. He confirmed that yes, Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to, as he put it, ‘monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.’"

It is really awesome that we have folks out there that are watching our backs! 8-O

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

SBS 2003 – SBS Network Configuration Wizard Error–Logon Name and Password Wrong?

We had set up three identical Toshiba Tecra S11 laptops with Windows 7 Enterprise x64 and all of the necessary drivers prior to delivering them to our client’s site.

When we first fire up the laptops we jump into the BIOS to enable vPro, set date and time, enable Intel Virtualization, and other BIOS related features.

When it came time to join the SBS 2003 domain where these laptops ended up one of them threw the following error:

Small Business Server Network Configuration Wizard

The system could not log you on. Make sure your logon name and password are correct.

We tried all known good username and passwords with no results.

With some help from fellow MVPs it turned out that somehow the laptop’s time and date were not in sync anymore. Time was not the first place we checked since all three laptops were set up at the same time with the same settings.

So, how the date and time on that one laptop fell out of sync is a mystery.

But, once the date and time was set correctly we were able to join the SBS 2003 domain!

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

Microsoft Software Assurance Benefits Entitlement Chart

This is an excellent chart of all of the SA benefits for Microsoft’s products:

The chart can be had from here:

• Microsoft Software Assurance Interactive Benefits Chart (PDF Document).

We sell Open Value Agreements into almost all of our client sites for desktop OS, server OS, and Office. Add MDOP to SA for desktop OS and there is a huge value there.

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

SBS Migration – SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 Swing Migration Officially Available

We have made no secret about our support of Jeff Middleton’s Swing methodology here.

There are many times where the skills learned by following the Swing Migration documentation to Swing SBS from one box to another have come through to save a client’s SBS environment after a catastrophic failure.

Since many SBS environments are single server or single DC, the Swing methodology teaches us a lot about how to either move AD and all of the bits with it or to recover AD and all of the bits with it.

We also learn that introducing another DC into the mix brings about a unique environment for recovery that is unique to SBS.

Many of the skill sets learned are out there somewhere, however one of the principle benefits of the SwingIT Kit is Jeff’s ability to pull all of those disparate resources into one organized place for us to work through.

Jeff also includes many tools and scripts to facilitate a clean migration from start to finish.

And one final point, the Swing method provides a fall back for the migration process where the Microsoft method does not once mailboxes have begun to move.

• SBS Migration by Jeff Middleton

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

Physical and Virtual Server Configuration Norms For Us

The following is one of our responses in a hardware configuration conversation for SBS 2011:

***

. . . it really does get difficult to work through all of this for those that may not spend time working directly with hardware.

Since we build our own servers and have been doing so for a good 12-15 years now we know the hardware side of things quite well.

We also resell tier 1 for remote clients though we don’t like the $*?$! match between them and software vendors when things break. Again, given our hardware experiences we can bring both in line most of the time and get a fix.

That being said, experience tells us that as a general rule:

• For virtualized environments more sockets + cores is better.
• All VM threads are processed in parallel for 2+ vCPUs.
• Hex-Core CPUs hit a sweet spot for virtualized setups where 4 vCPUs are assigned to several VMs.
• For physical environments more GHz is better.
• We use Intel Xeon CPUs exclusively. YMMV.
• More RAM is always better.
• Hardware RAID is a must.
• More spindles is better.
• PCI-E 8x 2nd Gen is better.
• Battery Backup or SSD Cache is better.
• 15K 2.5” spindles is better than 15K 3.5” spindles.
• SATA is only Nearline storage and never for primary production I/O.
• SSD blows away any and all spindle based setups.

That about sums up the overall perspective we have on server hardware.

***

Using the above guide we are able to start with a base platform that is tailored to a client’s needs and then scale up from there.

In addition to the above, we can add redundancy features such as multi-port server NICs, additional power supplies, clustering configurations, and more.

In the end it is our aim to provide the best all around IT solution for our client’s needs.

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

Huawei E5836 Mobile Wi-Fi (MiFi) on TELUS

While out and about whether travelling to or between clients, or working at a client site we always use a cellular modem to connect to the Internet.

There are times when there is a need for more than one Internet connection that is provided by a USB cellular based modem.

In the US, and perhaps other locations, folks have access to a small wireless device called a MiFi (Wikipedia) or mobile Wi-Fi. Up to recently we here in Canada have not had such a device available by our mobile carriers.

Since our switch to Bell Mobility to gain access to the HTC HD7 for a new phone we called a number of different Bell stores in the Greater Edmonton Area to purchase a Novatel MiFi unit that is listed on their Web site. All of the stores indicated that they had no stock and are no longer carrying them. Bell’s customer service rep that we spoke to indicated that they were having too many issues with the MiFi unit so it was pulled.

So, we headed down to our local TELUS store and picked up a Huawei E5836 Mobile Wi-Fi device.

Once we fired it up we were able to connect to it using the default WPA code that is on a sticker on the back of the unit.

We then opened a Web browser and navigated to http://e5.home.

• Huawei E5836 default admin password: admin

We logged into the admin console:

We side-stepped the Quick Setup wizard and went about configuring our desired subnet, SSID, WPA2 key, and other settings.

Once we were finished we saw the following in our available Wi-Fi list:

• Huawei E5836 SSID: MPECS_MiFi

The unit was really easy to set up and use.

One feature with regards to the screen that is appreciated is its ability to indicate the number of clients connected to the unit.

We anticipate having a laptop or three, the Tega, and perhaps the Zune HD connected simultaneously.

This post was published using the cellular data connection provided by the E5836.

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

Product Review – Intel’s New 510 Series SSDs At AnandTech

We have been anticipating Intel’s third generation (G3 code) SSDs for quite a while now. They were due to be released late last year, or at least they were initially.

AnandTech has a great review of the interim product release of the Intel SSD 510 Series that utilizes a third party’s controller (Marvell) but still relies on Intel 34nm (G2 code) NAND.

• The Intel SSD 510 Review

Note the initial lackluster performance reports in the review. Though, later on in the article AnandTech goes through a series of built in-house performance tests that show the Intel SSD 510 to be a much stronger performer.

So far, we have been installing the 160GB Intel X25-M SSD into almost all laptops that go out the shop door due to their exponential performance increase over a standard spindle based hard disk.

Since most, if not all, of our clients host their data on an SBS server and the 160GB of space more than meets our client’s laptop storage needs needs we will be hard pressed to install a 250GB Intel 510 Series SSD (currently around $695/unit).

For now, we will wait to see what the third generation SSDs bring to market.

In the mean time we are looking into sourcing an OCZ 240GB Vertex 3! :)

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

HP ProLiant MicroServer

While at the MVP Summit those of us in the SBS and WHS specialities received a gift from HP. That gift was an HP ProLiant MicroServer with a 250GB hard disk and 1GB of RAM.

Once we had a bit of time we pulled it apart to see what was up and also to install RAM:

The server board sits on a tray that is held in place by the two blue thumb screws.

Once we slid the tray out we had full access to the RAM slots along with the two PCI-E slots that allow us to install a half height half length add-in card.

We installed the two 4GB ECC DRAM DIMMs to bring the server’s RAM up to 8GB because the 1GB just was not cutting it with Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard.

Note that there is no hot swap backplane in this unit so any hard disk maintenance needs to be accomplished with the server offline.

When installing an optical drive or an addition set of hard disks the mounting screws are located in the front door panel.

• Optical drive screws and hex key tool.

• Hard disk drive mounting screws located in the front door panel.

This unit is _really_ quiet. It is quite suited to sitting on or under a desk somewhere in a small office with no one ever knowing that it even exists.

We are inclined to see the MicroServer as a the platform of choice for the small 5-10 seat office with the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011 operating system.

Or, the MicroServer makes a great standalone DC for those clients that we are setting up with a simple two node DAS based Hyper-V cluster.

One thing to be mindful of when it comes to the out of the box configuration is that the on board software RAID setup is quite limited for bandwidth. So, a fairly active engineering or architectural firm that is moving a lot of data from a single point may not benefit from this box without an add-in RAID controller.

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

AD DS Operation Failed – directory service is missing mandatory configuration – Event ID 2091 – FSMO Role Broken

We went to run a DCPromo on a temporary DC to remove it from a domain and received the following error:

Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard

The operation failed because:

Active Directory Domain Services could not transfer the remaining data in directory partition DC=ForestDNSZones,DC=DOMAIN,DC=LOCAL to Active Directory Domain Controller \\SBS.DOMAIN.LOCAL.

“The directory service is missing mandatory configuration information, and is unable to determine the ownership of floating single-master operation roles.

In the temporary DC’s Event Logs we found the following:

Log Name:      Directory Service
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-ActiveDirectory_DomainService
Date:          3/12/2011 12:29:37 PM
Event ID:      2091
Task Category: Replication
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          ANONYMOUS LOGON
Computer:      TempDC.DOMAIN.LOCAL
Description:

Ownership of the following FSMO role is set to a server which is deleted or does not exist.
 
Operations which require contacting a FSMO operation master will fail until this condition is corrected.
 
FSMO Role: CN=Infrastructure,DC=ForestDnsZones,DC=DOMAIN,DC=LOCAL
FSMO Server DN: CN=NTDS Settings\0ADEL:b3541fc4-50cc-4c12-96be-e5239b314bea,CN=OLD-DC\0ADEL:da50a8ba-dbc7-4219-8d68-ffa03b38c030,CN=Servers,CN=Default-First-Site-Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=DOMAIN,DC=LOCAL
 
User Action:
 
1. Determine which server should hold the role in question.
2. Configuration view may be out of date. If the server in question has been promoted recently, verify that the Configuration partition has replicated from the new server recently.  If the server in question has been demoted recently and the role transferred, verify that this server has replicated the partition (containing the latest role ownership) lately.
3. Determine whether the role is set properly on the FSMO role holder server. If the role is not set, utilize NTDSUTIL.EXE to transfer or seize the role. This may be done using the steps provided in KB articles 255504 and 324801 on http://support.microsoft.com.
4. Verify that replication of the FSMO partition between the FSMO role holder server and this server is occurring successfully.
 
The following operations may be impacted:
Schema: You will no longer be able to modify the schema for this forest.
Domain Naming: You will no longer be able to add or remove domains from this forest.
PDC: You will no longer be able to perform primary domain controller operations, such as Group Policy updates and password resets for non-Active Directory Domain Services accounts.
RID: You will not be able to allocation new security identifiers for new user accounts, computer accounts or security groups.
Infrastructure: Cross-domain name references, such as universal group memberships, will not be updated properly if their target object is moved or renamed.

The referenced OLD-DC was an original Windows Server from eight years ago!

Long story short, make sure to open ADSIEdit _on the affected FSMO Role owner_ and make the necessary changes there. When we tried to change the required settings on TempDC we kept getting errors.

1. Obtain the correct setting:
   1. On the affected role owner open ADSIEdit.
   2. Click on Default Naming Context [SBS.Domain.Local].
   3. Click on DC=Domain,DC=Local.
   4. Double click on CN=Infrastructure at the bottom of the list of folders.
   5. Locate the fSMORoleOwner attribute and click on it.
   6. Click the Edit button.
   7. CTRL+C to copy the contents of the attribute.
   8. Click CANCEL twice.
2. Correct the problematic settings:
   1. Right click the ADSI Edit root and click on Connect to…
   2. Use the following connection point:
      1. DC=DomainDNSZones,DC=Domain,DC=Local
      2. 
   3. Click on Default Naming Context [SBS.Domain.Local] to populate it.
   4. Click on DC=DomainDNSZones,DC=Domain,DC=Local folder.
   5. Double click on CN=Infrastructure.
   6. Locate the fSMORoleOwner attribute and click on it.
   7. Click the Edit button.
   8. CTRL+V to paste the correct setting.
   9. Click OK and then Apply.
   10. Repeat steps 2.1-2.9 to correct DC=ForestDNSZones,DC=Domain,DC=Local.

Once the above steps were completed on the FSMO Role owner for Infrastructure we were able to properly demote the temporary DC.

NOTE

The error we kept receiving when trying to edit the FSMO Role owner setting on TempDC was the following:

ADSIEdit

Operation failed. Error code: 0x20ae
The role owner attribute could not be read.

000020AE: SvcErr: DSID-03152965, problem 5003 (WILL_NOT_PERFORM), data 0

The above message took a while to decipher that we were being told to move our FSMO editing operations over to the Role Owner!

Further Reading

• Microsoft KB949257: Error message when you run the "Adprep /rodcprep" command in Windows Server 2008: "Adprep could not contact a replica for partition DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=Contoso,DC=com"
• We could not get the script to run properly. Though, we were attempting to run it on the TempDC instead of the FSMO Role Owner.
• Microsoft Forums: dcpromo remove domain controller failed
• Helped to guide us into the right direction.
• Microsoft KB867464: Event ID 4515 is logged in the DNS Server log in Windows Server 2003
• Error is completely irrelevant. OPTION 1 showed us how to get connected to ForestDNSZones and DomainDNSZones in ADSIEdit.
• TechArena Forums: Infrastructure FSMO role owner attibute [sic] not correct in root do
• The realization that we needed to be on the Role Owner came from here.
• 
• Thanks Michael!
• We opened a ticket on the Microsoft Partner Forum: DCPromo Fail - AD DS could not transfer the remaining data in directory partition ... missing mandatory configuration. FSMO.
• Green Yi’s reply helped us to focus in on finding the solution.

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

Server Core and UAC

We have just finished replacing our file server that was running on Windows 2008 Standard Core.

Replacing that server was not high on the priority list until after our migration to SBS 2011 RTM when we had a Group Policy setting that enabled UAC for the OU that contained our Core and Hyper-V Server installs. We restructured our GP scopes and OUs to eliminate UAC on our Core based servers.

By default, UAC is disabled on Server Core. All of our Core, Hyper-V Server, and cluster node servers took the settings changes that disabled UAC without an issue. But, the file server for whatever reason decided to ignore the GP settings and keep UAC enabled.

Try as we might we ended up with a Group Policy Tattoo for UAC thus rendering the server in a bad state.

We decided to cut and run so we reloaded it with Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Full.

The benefits of having the full install are huge. We now have access to the Windows Search service which allowed us to key in all of the shares on the file server into the Windows 7 Libraries feature and thus local search results.

We were able to mount the original server’s backup and attach the backup VHD to recover the needed folder share data.

It also allowed us to gain access to the File Resources management features which will help us to clean up our file stores:

The above screenshot was from a folder specific to Windows 95 . . . yeah, I actually said “Windows 95”! :)

The utility is the Enhanced Print Troubleshooter developed by the Decision Theory Group at Microsoft Research and Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS).

From the ReadMe.txt:

The Enhanced Print Troubleshooter is a diagnostic tool developed by
the Decision Theory Group at Microsoft Research and Microsoft
Product Support Services.  The Enhanced Print Troubleshooter uses
probabilities and costs associated with different faults to generate
a list of recommended troubleshooting steps.  When you run the
Enhanced Print Troubleshooter, the list of recommendations is
regenerated after each question is answered, based on what the
system knows about the problem you are having and the printing
configuration.

We will now be able to create and run reports that will allow us to see the big picture on all of those dormant files as well as other files and their usage on the server. Since we have well over a Terabyte of data to sift through we are anticipating freeing up a lot of storage space!

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

SPLA – Hosting Partner Community Calls

We received an e-mail from Microsoft Hosting:

We are going to do our best to get in on the Quarterly Licensing Brief call as we have a number of SPLA and SPUR related concerns that we need to express.

• Microsoft Hosting: Quarterly Licensing Brief on March 17th at 9:00am-10:00am PST.

We will also try to get in on the April 21 Hosting Community Call to see if we can express some of our licensing structure concerns there as well.

• Microsoft Hosting: Hosting Community Call April 21 at 0900Hrs PST Pre-Registration.

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 Service Pack 1 Error 0xC0000034 Fix Via Windows Servicing Guy

While the method outlined in the post yesterday does indeed get the machines up and running, it does so by possibly leaving the operating system in a questionable state.

We have used the method to bring about productivity on the affected users with the caveat that at some point we will need to revisit those machines when the users are not so busy.

The Windows Servicing Guy blog has a post that offers a couple of options for correcting the problem:

• Windows Servicing Guy: Error 0xC0000034 during Service Pack 1 installations for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2

Note the comments section that indicates how folks have been able to bring back the problematic machines or not.

We are also trying to get the following to the PSS folks at Microsoft so that they can figure out where the problem lies and fix it:

1. Registry hives. COMPONENT, and SYSTEM
   1. C:\Windows\System32\Config\
2. CBS log directory
   1. C:\Windows\Logs\CBS
3. Sessions.xml
   1. C:\Windows\Servicing\Sessions\Sessions.xml
4. Poqexec.log
   1. C:\Windows\WinSXS\Poqexec.log
5. Pending.xml
   1. C:\Windows\WinSXS\Pending.xml
6. “Dir /s /b” Directory listing of c:\windows\winsxs

To help Microsoft support please e-mail us a link to a ZIP archive of the above that has been uploaded to a SkyDrive location and we will forward that link onto Microsoft Support. The more dead bodies we can get to Microsoft the quicker a fix or at least the source of the failure will come to light.

Instructions for getting into WinRE can be found here:

• Microsoft Windows site: What are the system recovery options in Windows 7?

Further Microsoft resources:

• Microsoft KB 975484: Your computer may freeze or it may restart to a black screen that has an 0xc0000034 error message after you install a Windows Vista service pack.
• Microsoft Download: Microsoft System Readiness Tool for Windows 7 x64 (64-bit).
• Microsoft Download: Microsoft System Readiness Tool for Windows 7 x86 (32-bit).

UPDATE: Missed the \Sessions\Sessions.xml in the above folder pointer.

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 Service Pack 1 Error c0000034 Workaround

UPDATE: Please see this post FIRST:

• Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Error 0xC0000034 Fix Via Windows Servicing Guy

While the methodology below works to bring the machine back, its state after the fact is questionable.

Original Post

This post is a direct copy and paste from here:

• Microsoft Forums: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 installation fails with error code c0000034

Answer was provided by thiswoot.

YEP I GOT IT WORKING!! I DONT KNOW IF MY METHOD IS THE BEST BUT IT WORKS!

This method works without Safe Mode, without backups, without System Restore, without DISM, and without a Windows 7 DVD repair disc.

INSTRUCTIONS:

01. Reboot your computer while it's starting up.

02. When your computer starts up again, choose the option "Launch Startup Repair" 

--> PIC: http://notebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Recov-1.jpg

03. When the Startup repair starts, click cancel.

04. After you click cancel it will show a box. Click "Don't Send" 

--> PIC: http://i52.tinypic.com/xgjriw.png

05. Click the link "View advanced options for recovery and support"

06. In the new window click Command Prompt at the bottom.

--> PIC: http://i51.tinypic.com/50imu8.png

07. In Command Prompt type this and press enter: %windir%\system32\notepad.exe

08. Notepad will open. In notepad go to File-->Open.

09. Change the type of files notepad views from .txt to All Files (see pic)

--> PIC: http://i51.tinypic.com/35nd74z.png

10. Now in Notepad, go to C:\Windows\winsxs\ (or whichever drive Windows is installed on)

11. In that folder, find pending.xml and make a copy of it

12. Now open the original pending.xml (it will load really slow because the file is huge)

13. Press CNTRL+F and search for the following exactly: 0000000000000000.cdf-ms

14. Delete the following text (yours will be a little different):

<Checkpoint/>

<DeleteFile path="\SystemRoot\WinSxS\FileMaps\_0000000000000000.cdf-ms"/>

<MoveFile source="\SystemRoot\WinSxS\Temp\PendingRenames\e56db1db48d4cb0199440000b01de419._0000000000000000.cdf-ms" destination="\SystemRoot\WinSxS\FileMaps\_0000000000000000.cdf-ms"/>

--> PIC: http://i54.tinypic.com/adzpzp.png

Your PC might not have all 3 sections of code (<Checkpoint>, <DeleteFile>, <MoveFile>). Just make sure you delete section "Checkpoint" and whatever other sections have "000000000000000.cdf-ms". They will be right next to eachother.

15. Save the file, close notepad, close command prompt, restart your computer.

Once your computer starts up, do a normal startup (it may stall for 5-10 minutes at the "starting windows" screen, but leave it going) and the Service Pack will install some more stuff and restart a few times and then everything should be working! For some people, it reverts everything and cancels the service pack installation. For other people, the service pack installation completes. Either result is fine.

We are starting to see dead bodies as well and will use this method to restore the machines to working order.

Note that the Pending.XML file may change its permission state when edited and cause the revert to fail. Check the file attributes both before and after making the necessary changes.

Again, the answer was provided by thiswoot. Thank you! :)

UPDATE: An important link to start with when troubleshooting on Windows 7:

• Microsoft Windows: Troubleshoot problems installing a service pack for Windows 7.

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 Phone 7 Killer Feature – SharePoint Integration with Office 2010

We had a few calls this morning with clients having problems with their machines due to Windows 7 Service Pack 1.

While working from a client location we sometimes need access to the audit notes that we keep on all of our clients. Those notes reside in a secure SharePoint Foundation site. It can take time to fire up the Tega v2 or the Tecra laptop to get into our SharePoint libraries.

Two feature discoveries were made this morning that made the payback on the HTC HD7’s purchase readily apparent.

1. SharePoint integration is seamless with the ability to pin the site to the Start Menu.
1. Quick access is really important when working on something critical.
2. Microsoft Office documents have quick access features like Outline View.
1. Tap the Outlook View button in Word after opening the document and navigate to the needed information quickly.

This is a screenshot of the Word 2010 Navigation Bar:

When the document is opened on the HD7 the Outline view looks just like that. We can then tap on the required heading and be brought to that point in the document just as we do within Word 2010.

This one feature set, that is the ability to quickly access a SharePoint site, open a Word document, and navigate to the needed information is going to save us a lot of time over the life of the phone. Payback on a risk is sweet! :)

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

Open Value Agreements – It’s Official There Will Be No More Media Shipments . . . Almost

From a Microsoft e-mail that is applicable to Open Value Agreements that by default would have an automatic shipment of new product versions to the agreement holders.

Dear Customer

Microsoft is committed to evolving its business practices to better support you as a Volume Licensing customer. Based on improvements in internet access and customer feedback we want to inform you of an important upcoming change in how we will deliver products to you in the future.

As a Microsoft Volume Licensing customer enrolment no. AGREEMENT#; you receive Microsoft software updates through a physical media subscription kit. Beginning in April 2011, we will convert your physical media subscription to digital delivery through the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). This means we will stop sending you physical CD/DVD software updates. You will be able to access your updates by digital download on the VLSC.

In April 2011 you will receive a confirmation e-mail for each Volume License agreement enrolment which is converted to digital delivery and after which all future media subscription kit shipments will end. We will also send you instructions about how to access your updates on the VLSC. Note: MSDN , Software Assurance or any additional media subscriptions that you have paid for will not be affected, these will continue to be sent to you.

If your organization is unable to take advantage of downloading from VLSC, due to internet access limitations, or other factors, and you prefer to continue receiving your updates by CD/DVD media, please indicate this before 15 March 2011, by CLICKING HERE.

Thank you in advance for recognizing the importance of online software delivery. Since 2008 our "Digital by Choice" campaign has helped many customers move to software downloads. With software downloads you help reduce the need to manufacture, ship, and ultimately dispose of disks; you get updates more quickly as you can download them immediately; and you help yourself save time and resources as you do not have to manage the receipt, cataloguing, distribution, archiving and disposal of disks.
Thank you,
Microsoft Operations

Note that there is a deadline for the digital delivery opt-out of March 15, 2011. So, for any OVL clients that have ultra slow ISP connections or none at all they will need to make sure that they opt-out of digital only before that date.

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

HTC HD7 Windows Phone 7 First Impressions

My old HTC Touch Pro died this last weekend. So, despite wanting to wait until the summer before picking up a new Windows Phone 7 based device my hand was forced.

After evaluating the three main cellular provider’s Windows Phone 7 (WP7) devices I settled on the HTC HD7 offered by Bell Mobility.

This essentially killed two birds with one stone:

1. Discontinued our longstanding TELUS Mobility (TELUS) service (previous blog post on some of the pain points with them).
2. Replaced the now dead HTC Touch Pro.

First off, engadget has a couple of really good posts on the HD7 and WP7:

• engadget: HTC HD7 review
• engadget: Windows Phone 7 review

Now, since I have had a Zune HD since last year that gets used a lot the Metro GUI on the HD7 has been pretty straight forward to get used to.

Initial Impressions

• The screen is huge, clear, and rich in colour compared to my old HTC Touch Pro.
• Almost anything would look better! ;)
• Exchange configuration was very straight forward.
• The integration between Outlook, Hotmail, Facebook, and other social media sites is amazing.
• In Phone mode the screen blanks when the phone is at the ear but immediately goes active when the phone is taken away from the ear.

I like it. :)

The phone did require an update right from the start. In order to do that though the Zune software was required.

• Download the Zune Software.

Once done, the Zune software picked up the phone right away though it required an update for itself:

Once the Zune software was up to date we were able to move forward with updating the phone.

The update was downloaded to the phone and then:

Once the phone rebooted it came up into an update mode with an icon of a laptop tethered to a Windows phone. There was a progress bar that ran up the left hand side of the phone’s screen.

I was not able to watch the update complete, but the first third took about 10 minutes. The progress bar then sat there for quite a while.

Once completed, the phone was sitting at the lock screen. The approximate time for the update was about 30-45 minutes.

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

Symantec EndPoint Protection Error – Failed to connect to the server

When logging into the SEP management console we received the following error:

Error

Failed to connect to the server.

Make sure that the server is running and your session has not timed out.
If you can reach the server but cannot log on, make sure that you provided the correct parameters.
If you are experiencing network issues, contact your system administrator.

Well, none of the above seemingly turned out to be the problem.

A quick search turned up the following:

For whatever reason the SEP Manager was not running. Once started the management console opened with no issue.

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