January 2007 - Posts
If you migrating to Windows Vista or playing with Longhorn you may be interested in this newly released utility. The Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility allows you to restore files that were backed up in Windows XP or Server 2003 to Windows Vista and Longhorn.
Last night around 11:30 I went to Wal-Mart because I heard they were going to get 20 Nintendo Wiis. When I got there, there were about 30 total people waiting in line. I felt pretty good because there were several families and at my count I was about 19 in line if everything went smooth. Promptly at midnight 3 men and 1 woman came out pushing a cart of the prized possession. After the line started moving I realized too things. First, more people were buying in pairs with their family and finally they didn't start out with 20 but instead 16! I knew know my chances of getting a Wii were slim. :-(
When I got to about the 4th person up I did the calculations and realized that I was in fact number 17 in line and that there really was only 16 available. The lady in front of me who was an older Asian lady asked if I had any kids. I said I have two girls. She wanted to know if they were a factor in me buying the Wii. It absolutely was and is a factor in me buying a Wii. I love my Xbox 360 but it really isn't family oriented. Regardless, she gave up here spot for me to get the Wii and I'm now a hero to my family. Thank you lady!
I bought Zelda and Wario World and both are a true blast. However the game we currently play the most as a family is Wii Sports. As for controllers, I bought an extra Remote and NunChuck along with a classic controller so that we can download some of the older games and relive our past.
Bottom line is that my arm hurts...along with Sami and Sue's. I don't know if Alyssa's does since kids never get sore from such activities. I have to say that if you are looking for a fun workout this is the device to get.
Thought it was time to give another update to the Home Theater Room.
The couch (black) has arrived at the store and I'm trying to figure out when I want to have it delivered to the house. I still have a TON of work on the gutting the office. I hope to get started on that this weekend. First thing I need to do is start boxing things and storing them in the closet. Then I hope (fingers crossed tightly) to take the desk out of the room. This will suck taking it down stairs. It sure was a pain bringing it up.
I got a 12% coupon in the mail from Best Buy so the girls and I went tonight to purchase the TV and stereo. We ended up not going with our original idea for the TV but instead stepped it up a notch at went with the Westinghouse 47in 1080P LCD monitor. I really don't care that it doesn't have an HD Tuner built in since I will have a COX HD DVR up there. Oh and now the bad news. For now I have decided to keep the Xbox 360 downstairs.
We also picked up a Sony HT-7000DH AV Receiver. This model comes with a DVD player that upscales to 720p and 1080i…I know no 1080p yet. One of the main reasons I went with this one was because of the inclusion of the DVD player and the fact that it has two HDMI inputs…one for the DVD player and the other will be used for the HD DVR. Oh yea it also came with an $80 gift card on my next purchase. I'm planning on spending that on the cabinet that will store the receiver, DVD, and HD DVR. The cabinet can be seen here but the picture makes it look like crap. With the $80 gift card and the 12% coupon the guy gave me back to use again J it should be just under $300 for it.
Wow what is next? Carpet and Paint. I'll leave that for another update.
While doing my morning browsing I noticed the Exchange Team's blog had a post that walks you through the installation of Exchange 2007. Since I haven't had the time to play around with Exchange 2007 this was a pleasure to see and read through. I can't wait to get some free time and play with Exchange. I have to say the new setup wizard looks nice. Has anyone installed it yet? I would love to hear what you think.
If you haven't noticed my links on the left hand side of my blog you really need too!!! I've had the Terminal Services Team Blog up there for some time now and I check it often. Tonight I just saw another great post from the team. This post addresses a lot questions that have been raised with the new authentication features introduced with the latest RDC client. If you have questions this is the first place to stop and read up on it.
Microsoft has always had a great track record of detailing all of the Group Policy settings within their operating systems. They are keeping with that tradition and have released an update to their very popular Group Policy Spreadsheet. The update is that it includes all of the Windows Vista Group Policy settings.
This is by far the greatest tool to use if you use Group Policy. The reason being is that you can search it since it is an Excel spreadsheet. When I'm not sure if a Group Policy setting exists I will open this spreadsheet up and do a search for the feature and it usually leads me to the correct setting. Enjoy!
For quite some time now I've been neglecting my office. I'm not really sure why that is. Perhaps that I'm in love with Sami's Dual Core I-Mac running XP or it may be that I really hate going upstairs to work…I admit with age comes laziness.
Sami and I have discussed using the room as Entertainment/Game room. Well today made it official. We went ahead and purchased a two seat movie theater couch (We got it in black). I know, you're thinking why so small, why not a three seater… Two reasons:
- We are restricted by the size of the room
- The seats are for us. The kids can sit on the floor if they want to watch a movie with us J
The next purchase will be the TV. As Sami sits next to me she says "YIKES!!!" We are going to go with a Westinghouse LVM-42W2. I honestly can't wait to see some of my Xbox 360 games in 1080P (as my close friends now laugh out loud at my latest hiatus from Xbox Live).
I'm going to be looking for several thinks to finish out the room. I need to find a decent priced Mini-Fridge and Microwave. I also need to replace my rather large desk with a much smaller one however it still needs to fit my 26in LCD. Any suggestions on those please feel free to comment.
Here is what the floor plans look like currently.
The only thing that is final is the couch and TV, everything else still needs to be planned. I'm also debating what type of flooring I want to use. The room definitely needs new carpet but Sami wants wood floors…does she not care about those poor girls of ours and how uncomfortable it will be. J
I would love to hear what you all have to say. Any advice or past experiences would be great. I'll keep you all up to date and include pics of the room as we go down this path.
I just read over at the Windows Server Division blog that at last night's CES keynote Bill Gates announced the Windows Home Server. This should be interesting as it will no doubt be a welcome addition to most of us geeks. It is going to allow you to back up other PCs you may have on your home network and also stream movies across the network. It supposed to be moving into Beta too soon so if you can in on it you may want to.
Now I just wonder if it will have a light version of Active Directory for home networks…guess I'll have to find out at the MVP summit.
I just tried registering my MSMVPS.com account with Word 2007's blogging ability and had some problems. I finally got it working but thought I would share my findings with you and with this help post a test blog to ensure it works…boy if it doesn't all of this typing is going to waste.
First off you will want to register your blog account with Word 2007. I won't show you all the screen shots here but here is the easiest way to get there and also to post new blogs.
During this wizard you will want to choose which type of service your blog is running on. Since MSMVPS.com is run off of Community Server here is what I selected.
It took me several times to get this next part right (and it wasn't because I forgot my password). You have to know your Blog Post URL…well I guess missed that day in how to blog on a Community Server because this one took some time for me to figure out. However if you are using Community Server all you need to do is us the same path as me except with your domain name.
Put in your User Name and Password and you're off to blogging within Word 2007.
If you want to use your tags just select the Insert Category button on the top of Word 2007 and it will get them from you blog provider. This is cool stuff.
The one area I had problems with was with the pictures. I had to upload them separately but I’m sure someone will let me know that it can be done. If it does work I would like it to upload into Community Server.
When Windows Server Longhorn is released it will include 700 more Group Policy settings then Windows Server 2003 with SP1! I for one can't wait for Longhorn and just reading about all the new Group Policy settings gets me pumped up. Although it would go down in the Guinness book of world records as the longest blog ever I will refrain from sharing every settings with you. What I will do is go over some of the new categories that I think will be most useful.
Group Policy Categories that have some really cool settings in them:
- Antivirus
- Deployed Printer Connections
- Device Installation
- Networking - Quarantine
- Terminal Services
- User Account Protection
You can always find out more on Microsoft's site, take a look here for more info on all the new categories.
And yes this entry was posted with Word 2007!
At last year’s Tech-Ed TechNet Magazine gave away a really cool Active Directory Jigsaw puzzle. I just saw that it is now available online to download. I think it is a great resource for everyone who interacts with Active Directory to look at. Check out the full version here in PDF format. Just a warning the full files is almost 9Mbs.
I posted yesterday that Microsoft is having a Windows Vista launch in Phoenix on the 17th of January but there is some really exciting news to now go with that.
I just heard from Microsoft that each REGISTERED and ATTENDED individual (MUST be registered and MUST attend) will receive a free copy of Office 2007 Professional and Groove 2007. What a remarkable deal.
I’ve been looking for a good tool that allows me to manage a large amount of servers via Remote Desktop for…well for as long as I can remember. I’ve become tired of the Remote Desktops MMC because of its lack of features. Yesterday I found a truly unbelievable application that I have to share with all of you. Its name is VisionApp Remote Desktop and best of all it is FREEWARE!
VisionApp Remote Desktop allows you to manage your servers via Remote Desktop with the following features:
· Sort Servers Alphabetically (This made me so angry that I couldn’t do this with Microsoft’s Remote Desktop MMC. When you have to manage a lot of servers it really sucks that when you add new ones that follow a naming convention that they fall out of order now.)
· Create folders to help sort different types of servers (I created folders for my Production, Integration, Development and Virtual servers. This has made it extremely easy to find what I’m looking for.)
· Tabbed Remote Desktops (Tabs are huge right now and this tool takes full advantage of them. I can now open several different types of servers from different folders and access them via the tabs on the top.)
Please take some time to evaluate this product yourself as it is a huge timesaver.
This January Microsoft will be having one of their launch events here in Phoenix on January 17th. If you're interested in finding out more details on Windows Vista, Exchange 2007 or Office 2007 then you'll want to show up. Heck even if you want to get some kewl swag you need to show up. You can register for the event here.
The event will be held at the Phoenix Convention Center.
I'll be there...hope to see you there!!!
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