Microsoft Surface RT First Impression

We picked up a Microsoft Surface RT 64GB unit for myself yesterday.We also picked one up for Monique as she does a fair amount of e-mail and research for her homeschool duties.

While Apple is most certainly the king of the product box experience the Surface is very well packaged and easy to get to for those eager to get started.

It takes a bit for it to start up. The start-up routine between answering the initial profile questions (ours are both MicrosoftID integrated) and then the OS post question configuration took a bit.

If there is one thing that Microsoft has the others beat on in this game of Synergy between device environments it’s definitely to be found in the Windows 8 experience.

Howz that?

Once a person has set up their first Windows Phone 7 device, in this case both of us quite a while ago, and then their first Windows 8 Desktop (even without the initial Windows Phone setup), the Windows 8 experience keeps going on between devices.

Almost all aspects of social integration can be had on all Windows Phone 7/8 devices and now Windows 8 PCs, tablets, and RT based tablets with little more than signing in with the same LiveID/MicrosoftID.

Wow.

The time savings is huge especially for those that have fairly complicated profiles and Live Tile setups.

So, once the MicrosoftID side of things is flying along it’s not too difficult to add another Windows 8 device. That means that when the Surface Pro gets released sometime around Christmas or in the New Year setup is again going to be fairly straight forward.

The device is neat. It’s easy to use with a bit of a learning curve for the swipe gestures.

It’s quick and so far quite fun to play Fruit Ninja on. Angry Birds Space will be the next step. :)

Now, the one hurdle that this device will need to overcome: Our kids, who have been exposed to iDevices at their friend’s and cousin’s place) have been repeatedly calling it an “iPad”.

It will take a while for them and others to adjust to the reality that the device is not made and/or called anything remotely close to the Fruit Company’s devices.

Is this device an iPad killer?

This early in the game? Probably not.

However, the Surface RT is only the first salvo in what is going to be a really awesome fur is flying competition between the two giants.

IMNSHO, the advantage goes to Microsoft. Why?

Apple has been doing the same thing, in little increments, for a long time. Much like a chef that has a great recipe that gets tweaks and changes over time the recipe is growing stale.

Microsoft has a brand new recipe. And not only that, they are not the only chefs in the Kitchen. Toshiba, Asus, Acer, and other OEMs are going to be releasing some of the best PC/RT platform innovation we have seen in our industry _ever_.

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

Windows Live Writer

Stormy Cloud: Murphy’s At Work Today

Meh, our Canadian suppliers are 1 for three today:

The fourth supplier we deal with primarily for Intel Server Systems (EPSD) product is ASI Canada because they can transfer up from their Freemont, CA warehouse while the others order direct and we end up waiting.

We are looking for information on the HP Omni27 product that looks absolutely amazing for a 27” All-in-One.

HP’s site absolutely stinks for product information:

• HP Omni27 Landing Page

By stinks we mean that there is no link to be seen to product specifications other than the silly (IMNSHO) product video links.

When we click on the HPShopping link we get:

Now we’re batting 1 in 5.

A Bing Search gets us to the product support page.

• HP Support: HP Omni 27-1054 Desktop PC Product Specifications
• Hopefully the link stays live going forward!

And, just what brought this search about?

A client of ours has a number of the original 27” TouchSmart PCs. This one has a bum hard disk in it so we dropped an Intel 80GB 320 Series SSD and loaded Windows 8 Professional on it.

Wow ...

This OS is at home on a 27” touch capable display. Now, if only we can find out whether the Omni 27 PC is available in our channel! :)

Now to run BurnInTest Pro to see if the rest of the machine is okay beyond the hard disk.

Oh, and Wow ... just wow on Windows 8 and touch. :)

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

Windows Live Writer

Stormy Cloud Number 2: ExchangeDefender Australia and an Apology

Karl and Manuel Palachuk called me to task on the previous blog post especially over our qualification mentioning ExchangeDefender Exchange Hosting (xD) not being the vendor of record that killed folk’s mailboxes.

• MPECS Inc. Blog: Stormy Cloud: Vendor Deleted Mailboxes by Mistake and Could NOT Recover Them!

While we had seen bits and pieces about a problem with OWN’s hosted Exchange in Australia we were so busy that there was not enough time to actually let the news settle in:

• ExchangeDefender NOC: Australia 2007 Outage

So, Karl and Manuel, my apologies. I should have been aware of the impact that the OWN catastrophic failure had on the folks of Australia before posting the previous entry.

With the apparent abandonment of the folks that were on the hosted Exchange 2007 platform in Australia that begs the question: What does this mean for folks that have their organization’s mailboxes on Exchange 2007 here in North America? Or, any other geographical area that OWN services with Exchange 2007?

By abandonment we mean leaving the entire Exchange 2007 platform behind. We are not entirely sure where the mailbox recovery stands at this point? Vlad?

One of our clients has their hosted Exchange 2007 with SherWeb based here in Canada. We’ve been discussing the various Cloud vendors available to them including Office 365 and OWN’s hosted Exchange 2010 services. And now, possibly hosted Exchange 2013.

The one place SherWeb has both O365 and OWN beat is in the migration story. Karl mentions documentation in his first comment on the above blog post. SherWeb has a clearly documented migration story among other aspects of their hosting business.

With O365 and OWN that migration story must be handled by the IT Solution Provider or Cloud Support Specialist. :)

In the end, just as the hardware and software story are constantly changing for our on-premises IT Solutions so too must we be evaluating our Cloud Vendor’s wares on an ongoing basis.

Most certainly the situation in Australia is a real Cause For Pause when it comes to OWN’s hosted Exchange.

For us, it means looking further into SherWeb as a possible hosted Exchange and SharePoint vendor partner.

Cloud or On-Premises: A _full_ backup of all data hosted outside of a client’s walls is absolutely mandatory.

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

Windows Live Writer

Stormy Cloud: Vendor Deleted Mailboxes by Mistake and Could NOT Recover Them!

A vendor that shall remain nameless, not OWN/ExchangeDefender, that hosts a domain e-mail setup for a client that we are deploying Windows Server 2012 Essentials, Exchange 2013 Standard, RDS, and an LoB server for had an “internal miscommunication” and deleted the client’s entire e-mail setup on their own systems.

We started getting calls Saturday afternoon with our team walking up and down our steps and communications with the Cloud Vendor to make sure we were in the right.

It turns out that an update was posted to the service ticket:

Other than the spelling error for “waive” in the last sentence this particular vendor has really messed up.

How is it that they are unable to recover any mailboxes that they host? In this case they are POP3/SMTP/IMAP that is probably on some sort of Linux operation.

About 50% of the client’s users were only using the Webmail interface for their e-mail with little to no device interaction either. So, these folks are at a complete loss.

The Outlook POP3 based users are not so bad off.

Wow, what a way to start a Monday morning for many of the client’s users.

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

Windows Live Writer

Lab: Using Windows Server 2008 R2 as a Simple NAT Router

We have a number of lab setups that require the VMs to be on their own Private Network in Hyper-V but still have access to the Internet.

In some cases we need to have access to that private network and the VMs just as we would a product network.

In comes Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. We set up the VM with two vNICs. One is connected to the Private Network while the other is connected to the Internet via our internal production network (gives us quick access to the lab VMs).

1. We install the OS
2. Install Integration Services.
3. Install the Network Policy and Access Services Role.
4. Run the Configure and Enable Routing and Remote Access.
5. Choose VPN and NAT
• 
6. Set the WAN connection.
7. Allow DHCP to be set automatically.
8. No RADIUS for authentication
• 
9. Click OK to the DHCP Relay warning.

We now have an internal router that will allow the VMs on the Private Network to reach out to the Internet.

Finally, to publish internal services via the WAN connection:

1. Click on NAT under IPv4
• 
2. Right click on the WAN Interface in the centre pane and click Properties.
1. Click on HTTPS (443) and a window pops up.
2. Enter the IP address of the server hosting HTTPS and click OK.
3. Tick the check to the left of HTTPS and then click Apply (if it did not do so).
• 
4. Repeat for the needed published services.
5. Test the connections:
• 
• 

In the end, it should take no more than 20 minutes to have the first router configured.

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

Windows Live Writer

Installing Microsoft Exchange 2013: Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 Runtime Not Found

During our test run at installing Microsoft Exchange 2013 Standard on our newly minted Windows Server 2012 Essentials domain we hit a weird error that turned out to be a PEBKAC (me) issue.

When one does a search for Exchange 2013 Prerequisites a number of different sites come up that deal with installing Exchange 2013. However, most, if not all have Exchange 2013 Preview and or Preview components linked in their posts.

The above snip is from the Microsoft Download site. Note the top one. Most of the blog posts link to the (Preview) download! :P

So, about half an hour after exercising our ability to discover the definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over all the while expecting a different result) We discovered that the download was different via a Microsoft link (not sure which one).

• Microsoft Downloads: Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 Runtime

Another clue that should have rattled the brain cells at this late hour in the day was not the following:

It was actually the fact that all of the Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 Runtime (Preview) was in that list!

Oh, and by the way, the Exchange 2013 setup routine will do the necessary AD preparation:

So, please make sure to have a System State Backup in place before running the Exchange 2013 Setup Routine!

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

Windows Live Writer

Windows Server 2012 Essentials – Add Computer Wizard

For those of us that have been working with Small Business Server Standard 2011 the following is a welcome message:

We will no longer need to either cart around the .NET redistributable file or have it available somewhere on the network.

This is certainly a small thing but for those of us that manage our client’s systems we just had a small slice of our lifetime given back to us! :)

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

Windows Live Writer

Windows 8 Client and Hyper-V Are Better Together

There are so many reasons why the new Windows 8 client is a game changer.

• The Metro (Modern UI) provides the best at-a-glance experience hands-down.
• Hyper-V on the client will give legacy apps a place to go.
• Hyper-V on the client will give us a built-in lab environment.
• Windows 8 To Go is perfect for companies that require secure portability of the user environment while being device agnostic.

Now, that brings us to the desktop, workstation, and laptop hardware that will need to be in place for the more power hungry users as well as those endpoints where Hyper-V will provide legacy app access:

Yeah, that says 32GB of RAM installed on this machine. We started with 16GB but hit the RAM wall when we needed to fire up another VM for our Windows Server 2012 Essentials quick lab we are building.

We have gone from needing several machines for our lab environments to needing just one that can handle 32GB or 64GB of RAM with an SSD or two to eliminate any I/O bottlenecks.

Without a doubt, Hyper-V on the client OS is a game changer for both businesses and IT Solutions providers.

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

Windows Live Writer

Windows 8 Mail Error: You can’t connect this account to any more devices.

The exact error is this:

• You can’t connect this account to any more devices. Remove another device first with help from your system admin or Internet service provider.

Okay, so what exactly does that mean?

Well, it turns out that an e-mail showed up in the corresponding Inbox to explain things a bit further:

• Microsoft Outlook:
• Error with your new cell phone partnership.
• You have 10 phone partnerships out of the allowed maximum 10 partnerships. Once you reach the maximum, no more partnerships may be created until you delete partnerships from your account. To do so, please log into your Outlook Web Application account cell options and remove unused partnerships.

And, sure enough, under Options –> See All Options –> Phone the following was found:

Oops. It looks like we will need to be mindful of our client’s ongoing device connectivity habits especially if they change devices on a frequent basis.

For those that have not looked into Exchange 2013 yet this situation and the BYOD question are addressed quite nicely via the new Exchange Admin Center (EAC).

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

Windows Live Writer

Windows 8: How to Find An Artist, Song, Album, And More in XBox Music and Add To A PlayList!

Okay, so one opens the Music App on the new UI (formerly known as Metro).

Right click anywhere and there is no Search to be found when wanting to look up something.

Thanks to fellow MVP Susan Bradley the somewhat counter-intuitive process for finding music has come to light.

1. Hit the Start button on the keyboard to bring up Metro (can’t remember what its called at the moment).
2. Start typing the name of the artist/song/album:
• 
3. Click on the Music tile/icon in the list of available search locations below.
4. And, voila:
• 
5. In the Search Results scroll down for the song we are looking for and click on it.
• 
6. Click the Add to my music button.
7. Click the Left Arrow beside “Results for” near the top left corner of the screen.
8. Click my music
9. Sort by date added
10. Right Click on the newly added song and click Add to playlist.
• 

Wow, isn’t that easy?!? :P

We may just stick with the Zune App that can be installed on Windows 8 for now as we have a Windows Phone as well as a Zune HD to sync.

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

Windows Live Writer

2012 Hyper-V VM Performance: vCPUs, Threads, and Cores

Now that we have the ability to assign a large number of vCPUs to a VM we need to keep in mind that more vCPUs may not actually mean better performance.

The main thing to keep in mind is that _all_ threads associated with a virtual machine must be processed at the same time. So, 12 vCPUs assigned to that VM? Then 12 threads must run through the pipeline simultaneously to be processed by the CPU or CPUs.

That is why an 8 Core single socket setup will only show a maximum number of 8 vCPUs that can be assigned to one VM (assume Hyper-Threading off).

So, okay, we have a dual socket server with a pair of 8 core CPUs that can process a total of 16 threads simultaneously.

If we go ahead and assign 10 vCPUs to that VM we may assume that we would get more processing out of that database driven application.

The catch is the simultaneous 10 threads now need to be split between CPU 0 and CPU 1 in order to be processed together.

That means that CPU cycles will be lost while the pipeline logic juggles all of the other threads running through the CPU pipeline to get those 10 done. Part of that process will be to toss the extra two threads across the QuickPath Interconnect (Intel diagram) between the CPUs.

Essentially all of this extra juggling costs CPU cycles.

If we take the same high load VM and assign 8 vCPUs, the maximum number of threads that can be processed on one physical CPU, and compare its performance to the VM with 10 vCPUs on the same physical server we can pretty much guarantee that the VM with 8 vCPUs will outperform the one with 10 vCPUs.

•  MPECS Inc. Blog: A Big Picture View of VM Density: vCPUs to Cores?
• TechNet: Windows Server: What’s New in Hyper-V
• TechNet: Virtualization Blog: Hyper-V VM Density, VP:LP Ratio, Cores and Threads...
• TechNet Wiki: Hyper-V Concepts – vCPU
• Petri: Virtual Processor Limitations in Hyper-V (2009 article)

In the end we need to have a pretty good idea of just how a virtualization stack will behave on the various platforms we use to deploy Hyper-V standalone, Hyper-V Failover Clusters, or now Hyper-V with Live-Migration enabled.

NOTE: Test in a lab before deploying in production. :)

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

Windows Live Writer

Intel Desktop Board DQ77KB Integration Notes with Lian-Li PC-Q05

Our previous posts:

• A New Client Desktop Platform For Us
• Intel Desktop Board DQ77KB Slim Mini-ITX - Anyone Have a Brick/Adapter They Use?

We have our power brick as per the first linked blog post above.

• Mini-Box.com: 19v/8.4A 160 Watt AC-DC Power Adapter

Here are a few notes as far as how we need to configure this system.

Cooling Solution

The cooling solution comes with a backing plate:

The plate needs to be installed on the bottom of the motherboard _before_ installing the board into the PC-Q05 case.

We need to move the cross-member as well as the plate in the cooling channel before we can install the cooling solution onto the CPU.

Note that there are two small screws that are on the cooling fin block that need to be set in place along with the four screws around the CPU itself.

Make sure to have the SATA power cable set plugged into the motherboard prior to re-installing the case cross-member.

Now, the fan itself presents a bit of a conundrum:

Intel provides two screws with the HTS1155LP that are too _small_ for the standoffs that are in the PC-Q05. Note that the standoffs use a fine thread so any screw used to mount an optical drive will do (Shown above).

The catch is that the plate between the cooling fins and blower that mounts to the PC-Q05 has two screws that are a bit too long. So, when it comes to installing the fan do _not_ try and tighten up the screws 100% as that will push the fan’s metal base plate into the fan itself. One does not need to deliver a PC that will start humming and/or rattling a few days or weeks down the road.

On the plus side the fan standoffs in the PC-Q05 are just a tad off so one can snug up the screws once the fan base hits the buffer plate screws and not worry about them backing out.

SATA Cable

In the picture shown below the SATA connector on the motherboard side is straight. This type of connector is a bit too tall as the cover of the case will not close properly.

Make sure to have some short SATA cables that have one straight and one 90 degree connector on it. That will allow the cover to close without issue.

Windows 7 Installation

We have a bit of a catch when it comes to installing Windows 7. The Intel Desktop Board DQ77KB only has USB 3 SuperSpeed ports on the back. There are USB 2 headers on the board itself but no connectors are provided with the motherboard or case.

So, if the Windows 7 ISO does not have the USB 3 drivers slipstreamed into it we need to use a USB 2 connection as shown above. Fortunately we have a number of those old USB header kits in a bin that will now come in handy. :)

Once the base OS is in place we needed to install the most current driver set for Windows 7.

• Intel Download Centre Site

Please make sure to install the following:

• Intel PROSet NIC Drivers
• Graphics Driver
• Intel Chipset Driver
• Intel MEI/AMT Driver

Once our system was completely set up we finished off with the BIOS update for the board.

We now have a really slick looking system that is _fast_ in its base configuration!

• Intel Desktop Board DQ77KB
• Intel Core i5-3470S
• 8GB or 16GB Kingston SO-DIMM RAM
• 80GB Intel 320 Series SSD (or larger depending on application)
• Lian-Li PC-Q05 Slim Mini-ITX case
• 19 Volt at 8.4A (160 Watt) AC/DC Power Brick

One small caveat with the setup: The PC-Q05 comes with two Power LED headers. One for the button and one for the front mounted LED. Since the DQ77KB only has one header we chose to modify the front LED header (3 hole block) to have the dark wire (positive) in the middle. That header was then plugged into the Power LED header on the board.

That is one smart looking system. :)

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

Windows Live Writer

Zalman ZM-VE300 Firmware Upgrade Available

We found the ZM-VE300 almost useless when we first received it as the firmware was really buggy.

• Zalman Updates Page
• Category: Storages
• Sub Category: External HDD/SSD Cases
• Product: ZM-VE300
• 

The firmware available as of this writing is R1005N.

Once we reached a fairly stable firmware version a number of months back we were able to select the applicable OS ISO to load on a system then press the top button and hold it to “Save” the ISO setting.

We could then unplug the VE300, plug it into the new system, and boot to the ISO as though it were an attached optical drive with the OS DVD in it.

Having a few of these units around the shop for quick access to OS ISOs for installing a new system or re-installing an existing system is a huge time saver.

Plus, we don’t have a bunch of larger USB2 sticks that would otherwise be needed to hold all of the OS files that were extracted from the ISOs.

One of the benefits of having the ISO appear as an optical drive is for older BIOS setups that may or may not have an available Boot Option Menu or possibly no option to boot to an attached USB drive. Some systems, server boards, and laptops today are quite restrictive in what we can use for an external boot device. The Zalman makes this point moot.

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

Windows Live Writer

Server 2012 – Unable to convert to Server with a GUI from Server Core on an upgraded Windows Server 2012 machine

For many of us that have been in our industry for a long time there are a good number of horror stories from days gone by when we did in-place upgrades for NT3, NT4, and then Windows Server 2000.

Our last one was over ten years ago and we plan on keeping it that way.

Why?

Because whatever line of reasoning draws one to the conclusion that an in-place upgrade is the best option is flawed at best.

There is _absolutely no way_ to account for the unknown setting or configuration sitting in that existing OS that will rear its head post-upgrade to bite us and bite hard.

• Microsoft Support KB2775484 Unable to convert to Server with a GUI from Server Core on an upgraded Windows Server 2012 machine
• Three registry settings left over from the upgrade put a full-stop to the requested change.

Now, the above is but one example of something hidden that jumps out to cause a problem. Unfortunately, as much as Microsoft and others have run through various scenarios for in-place upgrades one cannot account for changes made to the source server especially in the SMB space.

So, what do we recommend doing?

SwingIT (www.sbsmigration.com) for a DC that requires the destination to hold the same name as the source.

Using Swing we can end up with a freshly installed Windows Server 2012 DC that has the same name as the original server.

With most of our clients having some headroom on their servers we can also migrate AD to a new DC very simply then detach that VHD and attach it to the newly configured DC VM.

Now, when it comes to an application server such as a Remote Desktop Services delivering desktop and RemoteApp sessions there is most certainly the possibility to hold onto that setup and do an in-place upgrade.

However, starting with a freshly installed operating system we do not inherit all of the bloat that comes with OS age (patching for one) plus it gives us the opportunity to evaluate what applications are relevant and which ones can be deprecated.

Starting fresh also gives us the opportunity to purge all former user profiles on the existing server.

In the end just like anything else we evaluate the risks of any procedure. In our case we will be watching out for the in-place upgrade problems and forum posts about things having gone awry for now.

IMNSHO, in-place upgrade should be the absolutely last option considered or tossed off the table altogether.

KB Hat Tip: Susan Bradley

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

Windows Live Writer

Some Malware Tools

Here is a short list of some malware tools:

• TDSKiller:
• http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684
• Microsoft Malware Removal
• http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/malware-removal.aspx
• Microsoft Malware Scanner
• http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Combofix
• http://www.combofix.org/
• HighjackThis
• http://free.antivirus.com/us/#cleanup-and-prevention
• Trend managed to pick up this particular product though it still remains free as of this writing.

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

Windows Live Writer

Windows 8: Unknown Device Intel LPC Interface Controller - NTN0530

After installing Windows 8 Enterprise x64 on one of our shop systems with an Intel Desktop Board DH67CL we had the following:

• Hardware IDs: ACPI\VEN_NTN&DEV_0530
• NTN0530

Some searching brought us to find that the NTN0530 device is an infrared receiver of some sort.

We did a search on Intel’s site and we found:

• Intel Download Site: Infrared: Nuvoton Consumer Infrared (CIR) Driver for Windows 8
• Intel’s Download Site if the link is broken

After running the driver install routine via right click and “Run As Administrator” we no longer had the Unknown Device problem.

Folks that have been mentioning that Windows 8 will be another Windows Vista may be surprised. Much of the pain we had with Windows Vista had to do with very poor driver releases in the early days of the product post RTM.

So far, we have seen excellent driver adoption across the board for Windows 8 RTM installs that we have done to date. Hopefully this is an indicator that we will not be seeing too much of a driver pain point from mainstream hardware product vendors.

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

Windows Live Writer

Windows 8 App Updates This Morning

When we logged into one of our shop systems our now RTM Windows 8 Enterprise Store Live Tile showed a number on it:

Now, the above number came _after_ we had already jumped in to the Store and clicked the Updates (10) link in the top right corner of the Store window.

This is what we saw:

We clicked the Install button at the bottom of the above list and ended up with the Store saying we had three updates to do again:

Once done, the Apps look to be the same. We will need to dig into the product support site to find the release notes for the revision notes.

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

Windows Live Writer

AVG CloudCare - Whatcha Think?

While at the SMB Nation Fall Conference we saw a demonstration of AVG's new Cloud managed antivirus product and it looks very promising.

Please post a comment or use the Blog Questions e-mail link in the blog's column with your thoughts on AVG's corporate A/V product.

Whatcha think? Worth a look or not?

Thanks for reading!

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

Windows Live Writer

Neat: Microsoft Surface Ad “The Surface Movement”

The following video was pointed out by fellow MVP Cris Hanna.

The Surface Movement

The keyboard has been the tablet’s Achilles’ heel from the get-go.

Wanting to get any serious work done on the Tega v2 tablet required us to purchase some sort of keyboard/mouse combination. The Logitech DiNovo Mini met that need for our Tega v2 tablet.

The fact that the Surface will have a keyboard built right into the unit is a “killer feature”.

Folks that are spot checking their Live Tiles for something they are waiting for can touch their way through in a few taps and swipes.

Someone that needs to focus on finishing up that report or tweaking their proposal will require an extra input method. The Surface’s built-in keyboard kit is perfect for that.

For anyone that has travelled coach, the ability to disconnect the keyboard and rest it on our lap while the tablet itself sits on the now reclined seat table in front of us is going to be a really good thing too!

The Surface and other OEM Windows 8 product offerings that are going to be available soon are, IMNSHO, going to be a game changer for that market segment.

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

Windows Live Writer

#IAmMEC - The Hands-On-Labs are still online!

There was just so much awesome content throughout the Microsoft Exchange Conference that I only had a few visits to the Hands-On-Labs room(s).

Well, the HOLs are still available on the MyMEC Site.

The conference was _really_ worth it.

We now have a great view of Exchange 2013 and its requirements as well as the migration story from Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2007.

NOTE: There is no migration story for Exchange 2003!

For those SBS 2003 sites we will need to migrate their mailboxes to Exchange 2010 and then on to Exchange 2013 if and when the time comes.

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

Windows Live Writer

The Great Big Hyper-V Survey

We have an opportunity to provide independent feedback on the use of Hyper-V in our client's businesses as well as our own by taking some time and filling out this survey:

• The Great Big Hyper-V Survey

Please take the time if there are Hyper-V related activities going on in-house or at client's sites.

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

Windows Live Writer

QuickBooks Support at 1-888-414-6596 Warning

We had a client call this evening that indicated that they were having QuickBooks problems. The user must have done a search and came up with:

The “technician” asked to call back. When they did they brought up the Task Manager and tried to scare the user into allowing them to initiate a remote session to fix virus infections (they pointed to regular Windows processes as being the infections).

Fortunately the user stopped them in their tracks by stating they had an IT department and would get in touch with them instead.

As always, be very cautious about search results.

It is a better idea to go to the product’s Web site and initiate support contact there.

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

Windows Live Writer