THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

Steve asked "Do you have any idea about end of life/end of support for SBS 2003 sp2?  I'm not finding it anywhere?

And another Steve answered this -- Microsoft Product Support Lifecycle for SBS 2003 - The other steveb - Steve Banks' Blog on SBS, EBS, and other Small Business Technology Topics:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/steveb/archive/2010/01/11/microsoft-product-support-lifecycle-for-sbs-2003.aspx

But let's make this real clear --

"SBS 2003 SP1 will be supported until 2014 at least for extended support."

That said, I'm not a fan of being the first on a platform, nor am I recommending that you be the last.  What is pushing most upgrades are when the hardware changes out.  I can't accept/don't like installing old code on new hardware either.

I have two pairs of pants that got a bit dusty when moving around computers this week.  It's amazing how many dustbunnies can be inside a computer isn't it?  So the pants I was wearing were a bit dusty so I was checking to see if they could be washed or only dry cleaned.  And from the tag in the clothing, I couldn't tell.  Granted the tag was small (not as small as the Certificate of Authenticity tags on the side of computers mind you) but still, and they were all in icons.  And Saturday night at my house is laundry night.  Do I know how to paaarrrty or what?  So I'm sorting colors and clothes and get to these two pairs of pants that have never been washed before, and I honestly don't know if they can be.  And the only "manual" they have instructing me what to do when or if I should wash them is on that tag with a bunch of icons.

Okay... great... but what if you don't know what the icons mean?  

So I do what every self respecting geek does when facing laundry issues.  

http://www.textileaffairs.com/c-common.htm and so I had to search to figure out what the symbols meant.  Sometimes we're like that in technology when we communicate to those that don't live and breathe this stuff.  We use jargon and words that we assume everyone will understand....because of course WE understand what we mean.  But if you aren't in the business... in this case ... I'm not a specialist in laundry (or at least try to only do it once a week or as necessary) and my entire world doesn't live and breathe around laundry, it's no wonder that I'm looking at this laundry jargon going "Huh?".  Is that a W for wash or a Crossed out washing machine?

Don't forget when trying to explain something new to a user that they may be not understanding what you understand.  Ensure that you are communicating on the same level, with the same understanding.  Ensure there are visual instructions when someone starts to use something new.  Ensure that the instructions you give are clear and jargon free (as much as we can in the Information Technology world).

And in case anyone is wondering, Do not wash, No bleach, Do not tumble dry, Light iron, Dryclean, Any Solvent Except Trichloroethylene.

Hmmmm, maybe I can use a lint roller and get the worst of the dust off of them?

Open licensing changes frustrate one reseller:
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=56229

"As for customers requiring a WindowsLive ID, it's a matter of security. Customers ultimately own the license and the software even if they hand over permission to their IT environment to a solution provider, Sharp said."

There's a nagging question I'd like to know.  Was this an issue in the past or merely something done for the Attorneys.  As I was poking around the VLSC web site seeing if there was a Windows 7 Ultimate license I could download or order a media kit like there was for Vista Ultimate, the more you dig around the VLSC web site, the more you hit spots that are still the old web sites.

I still don't think this site is small business friendly as it should be.  I'm poking around and having to try to figure out where things moved around to.

As part of the new system integration, Microsoft is increasing security to mitigate privacy and anti-piracy concerns. If customers would like partners to work on their behalf, the customers must add their partner of choice as an administrator for Open Licenses.

You know, there were partners that posted (whether or not they actually did so) that they were going to go to bittorrent to download media because they couldn't get access.  I'm not sure how this is mitigating anti-piracy.  The best apology would still be a month extension on everyone's license agreement.

On Wednesday, February 3rd there will be multiple webcasts showcasing the new process -- http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2010/01/27/microsoft-volume-licensing-center-vlsc-webcasts-for-partners-register-today.aspx

I'd urge everyone to make time for a webcast. I'll be honest and say that it will take some time for me to regain the favor of open value licensing I once had.

So if you are migrating from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 one of the key things you need in place is SBS 2003 sp1.

SBS 2003 sp1 is not the same as Windows 2003 sp2.

SBS 2003 sp1 is a five part service pack

Windows Small Business Server 2003 Service Pack 1:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/downloads/sp1/default.mspx

If you already have Windows 2003 sp2 on the box you can substitute the SP2 that is already on the box for that first plart.

But you need to get the latest Sharepoint service pack and most importantly that component referred to as

You can skip over XP sp2 and the Outlook 2003, but that's the part you need to ensure a proper base.

Don't forget, review the tips at www.sbsmigrationtips.com to have a successful migration.

[Warning:  Do not try installing Windows 7 on older PCs without parental supervision]

We have a policy in the office to change out a batch of computers every so many years.  And this year there were three computers in the office that needed a refresh.  Because I had done an earlier trial run with someone in the office, I knew that about 99.99999% of our business apps could handle 64bit just fine and of the few that couldn't, we could virtualize an XP or set up a computer in the corner to be the designated XP that people could remote desktop into and share the application.  So I deployed three new Windows 7 64bit to people in the office.

But now here's where the fun starts.  Now we have people in the "food chain".  Those computers that I'm replacing are middle aged.  Not elderly.  They might need a bit of face lifts (better video card) and perhaps a tummy tuck (I max out the RAM by going to www.crucial.com to see how expensive it is to upgrade them to more memory).  Now because I'm the master patcher/go to person at the office, the more versions I have to update and deal with, the less efficient I am.  Thus I try to keep the number and type of different versions of operating systems and Office to a minimum.  Office 2007 is much nicer to patch than 2003 as it doesn't require that you feed it a cdrom during service pack updating and what not.  So I looked at those middle aged computers and did something that I honestly don't recommend.  I installed Windows 7 64bit on them and they worked.  Now why am I being two faced here and telling you not to do what I just did?  Because I'll be the first to admit it's not the most pleasant technology experience in the world.  While Windows 7 installations is one of the easiest and fastest to do (with about 15 to 20 minutes between boot from DVD to a working operating system), the fun begins AFTER the operating system is installed and you see if it likes two major things:

Video cards

We have everyone in our office using at least two monitors.  Yes, even the receptionist at the front.  It allows her to look at the calendars of all of the partners inside of Outlook and see who's expected to arrive at the office as well as doing her normal tasks.   But we have a few folks that have three monitors.  And that one particular upgraded workstation was my problem child.  Brand spanking new HP workstations come with several PCI Express slots (the ones where the video cards get plugged into) so that you can get a machine with one dual monitor card as well as TWO dual monitor cards.  My middle aged machines come with ONE PCI Express slots and multiple PCI slots.  If that's greek to you, just call them one of the long ones and three of those white ones inside the computer.  In this one computer, the existing PCI express card didn't like to play nice with a salvaged PCI card from another machine.  And that's when I found out that trying to find a PCI card online with a Windows 7 driver is about as successful as the search for the fountain of youth.  I finally did get it working with a different PCI express card, but the moral of this story is two fold:

First - your best bet is STILL to buy Windows 7 on a brand new machine.  You won't be surfing www.newegg.com trying to find PCI video cards that support Windows 7.  You will ensure that the drivers were tested and built to work.  Second - two montors is relatively easy to do with a dual head card, getting three and four works the best with matching cards.  Of course, you can more easily get two matching dual head cards in a brand new computer.

Printers

The second major sticking point is printers (and other devices).  I knew already from my testing that I had 64 bit printer drivers for my HP Laserjet 8000 and our two multi function Ricoh scanner/copier/printers.  I forgot to check if the locally attached printer (a Laserjet 1012) had a 64 bit printer.  So when I attached the printer, it didn't quite find it's own printer.  So the first trick you can try is to see if there is a printer number close to the one you are attaching.  There was a Laserjet 1015 which worked a little bit.  But then we hit the issue of "unsupported personality".  The topic is discussed here: http://forums.pcworld.com/index.php?/topic/60170-hp-laserjet-1012-and-windows-7/page__st__20   If you merely do basic printing you probably won't see this issue.  But if you do printing from applications like Quickbooks and other accounting apps you'll see it.  So the solution?  Turn off the machine and turn it on again every time it happens.  Yeah.. I know not a good solution.  So you have a couple of options here.  The first option is to follow the rule of "the kids on the playground".  The more inexpensive the printer, the more it will work best with the era of the operating system it was sold with.  The Laserjet 1012 was an inexpensive printer discontinued back in 2006.  The Ebay going price is $30.  HP is currently offering a trade in program for any brand of printer to replace it with a new one -- http://hp.tradeups.com/Customers/19/GetQuote.aspx.  So your first decision will be is whether or not it's better to donate the printer to a charity or trade in your printer for a new one.  In my case there was another printer in the office we could trade out and it would work.  But it's a lesson to watch what kind of printer we buy in the future.  Cheap may not pay for itself in the long run.

That said I have at home an HP Laserjet 4L that is as old as the hills and still using it on Windows 7 and it's still running just fine.

So the other moral of this story is, if at first the printer doesn't work, don't beat your head against the wall.  Go donate that printer or trade it in for a new one.  When buying printers in the future, remember that cheaper may not be better.  See what sort of printer driver it has.  If  you can't tell, ask on a forum. 

You know that Steve Jobs does PR well.  Even my Dad last night asked me about the iPad.  I told him about the chatter that the gals were not liking the name.

It struck me with the media frenzy that if Steve Jobs introduced toilet paper, I have no doubt the Scoble-ish people would stand it line to buy it.

The PC Officially Died Today | The New Republic:
http://www.tnr.com/article/the-pc-officially-died-today

The headline and hype of this post just makes me shake my head.  I do hope that the iPad (and dudes, as a gal I must say that the name IS lame) does catch on because there is a real issue of attention span deficit that our twitter world is generating in our young people.  The size of my local paper, the Fresno Bee keeps getting smaller and smaller and thinner and thinner.  People want a twitter sound byte world.  But life isn't a twitter feed.  And sometimes comprehension only comes from reading.  And I'm not convinced the younger generation is reading and comprehending like they should.

So if it takes a tablet device to bring newspapers, books, textbooks to an afforable marketplace, so be it.  If it takes Steve Jobs to give his blessing on it, so be it.  But the idea that we just jumped a new hurdle in computing, oh pllllleaaseee, come on with the hype.  You are starting to go down the same road of financial divide between Wall Street and Main Street that is impacting Obama.  I'll wait to see if that iPad makes it to Main Street and not just hyping it up Wall Street.  $400 is still a lot of money.  "It's what you do with it, stupid", should be the matra of any platform released these days.

You know about the HP datavault right?

What?

You don't?  Here's your chance to find out more about it!

Twitter / Ross Miles: ZOMG!! The SBS 2008 Migrat ...:
http://twitter.com/rosscify/statuses/8260638166

ZOMG!! The SBS 2008 Migration guide tells you to enable circular logging!!!!!! WTF???

It does it for purposes of migration.  When you migrate over the email, those log files will grow.  Now you can leave it disabled and then  just be aware that right after you migrate those mailboxes that store will be a tad large, then it will shrink down and go back to normal size.

What the Microsoft migration docs fail to say is once you enabled it for purposes of migration... go back and TURN IT OFF.

But really it truly is okay to enable it for migration... then to turn it back off afterwards.

The Official SBS Blog : Exchange 2007 Activation Tool is available for Small Business Server 2008:
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2010/01/26/exchange-2007-activation-tool-is-available-for-small-business-server-2008.aspx

The Official SBS Blog : Business Backup with SBS and Windows 7:
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2010/01/25/business-backup-with-sbs-and-windows-7.aspx

Interesting comments on the different ways that people are backing up workstations.

One of the things when migrating is to soften the blows of change.  Today thanks to Oli of www.ebsfaq.com I softened another one.

We used to map drives to SharePoint in Windows XP.  In Vista and Windows 7 it's not as obvious how to do that.  Once you figure out the trick it's a duh moment.

Go to map a drive and in the \\server location put instead \\companyweb\DavWWWRoot  That will expose the root of company web and from there you can set mapped drive letters straight to the company web.

Yes, it's not as pretty, yes, it's not as webified but for us in the stone tablet era of technology love to ensure that our folks that hate change, embrace change by making an easy and smooth transition.

Amy Babinchak of www.thirdtier.net reports that this works with a BPOS hosted Sharepoint as long as you enable Webdav on the Windows 7 workstation.

Here's another tweak I do when setting up Windows 7.   It makes for a much smoother transition for folks that are used to mapped drives and much smoother when coming from Windows XP and not going through the migration of Vista.  I call it my "link" trick.  First off you map drives for folks using whateve flavor of mapping.  In the Windows 7 era I do not use login scripts but rather now us group policy preferences as it works nicer with SBS 2008 and with my Win7 workstations.  If you still have XP machines (and let's face it we will in our office for some time) you can install the group policy preference extensions on those workstations so that they can use preferences as well.

So now that you've mapped those drives, now I do links and name those mapped drives to something descriptive so the person will see these mapped drives as favorites and will be easily able to navigate.  I'm going to blog pictures on what I'm manually doing so you see the process, see where they end up and how easy it is to build custom link "favorites".

Click on users, then on the user name, then find the Links folder under the users profile. 

Under that Links folder, anything you add in in that links folder ends up on the left hand side window of a file open window.

Right mouse click in that folder and click on new, then shortcut.  Now put in the mapped drive letter (for demo purposes I'll use z:)

Click next to continue

Now comes the point where you can name that mapped drive as well as put a bit of description for folks tailored for them. 

L Drive - Litigation folder is one that we use a lot at my firm.

When you are done, from now on, those mapped drives will show up in the left hand side window under favorites.

Alternatively you can use UNC paths as well here and merely CALL the shortcut a mapped drive to wean people off drive mappings and use UNC paths as well.  But I tell ya, as a fuddy duddy on premises server, mapped drives still play a key part of our firm efficiency and workflow.  We're not yet into UNC paths, even though that map... well... maps to a UNC path on the server.

So I'm finally happy to report that I have access to the VLSC web site.  If you are still without access, don't give up hope even though banging your head against the wall of VLSC web site is frustrating.  Personally while I understand from the Attorney legal side of the fence that they want to ensure that the ultimate customer "accepts" the contract.  But I'm also getting a bit tired with Microsoft's constant push towards anti piracy especially when it 's not working and just angering those folks that are law abiding.  The price tag for Office 2007 in particular is getting harder and harder to swallow the price tag for a small business per workstation when  you can buy hardware for near that same price tag.  OpenOffice is an alternative, but it is different and will impact productivity for key office workers.   

I still am using my passport/LiveID that I always have done -- e_bitzie@hotmail.com and I'm still using the business email that I have for umpteen years of sbradcpa@pacbell.net.  After three or four phone calls, several emails and escalations set up, it was an email that was sent by someone else, to someone in management at Microsoft, who then included me in a cc thread to finally get the business email reset. 

I hope that anyone else having issues are finally seeing the floodgates open up today.  If you still are impacted, please don't give up the hope.  Email me. Email support again, call that support line, and worst case scenerio, email someone you know in Microsoft, or even someone you don't personally know but someone you think might be able to help.

What's the nicest thing about having XPmode and the ability to have a virtual XP?  It makes the transition from the old machine to the new machine easier.  Sometimes people like different color backgrounds, tweaks inside of the Excel and Word applications and what not.

Sometimes it's the little things that make migrations more successful.

I have exciting news tonight!  My VLSC log in experience has changed! 

No longer do I log into my passport account that I used to use for the eopen site and get a message that I'm locked out for security reasons and to contact support.  Now I can't log out of passport, nor can I log in.  It's in this endless loop of being unable to go anywhere but looping back to those annoyingly chipper pictures of people that are on the VLSC web site.

So just for grins, I decided to log into the VLSC web site using firefox. 

Ah, my faith is restored.  Once again after logging in using firefox it tells me that I have entered incorrect information and have been locked out of registration as a security measure.

Good to know they are still keeping riff raff like me out.

XP mode/remote apps with your OLD Windows XP desktop.

The ingredients are... a Disk2VHD image of the existing running XP

The proper licensing (OEM's flipped to SA, Retail, etc etc) to allow you to move the XP off the oem box.  Remember an OEM license can't be moved from the OEM box.

You then go into the Windows virtual interface and build a new drive pointing to the VHD.

Once you start the moved over XP it will want to activate.  If you have a retail/vl key it will normally activate again just fine.  OEMs on SA (at least in my experience hopefully someone will tell me if I'm doing this wrong) you can take the COA off the unit and tell the system you'll call in the key, then scroll down again and change the product key.  Now you can either activate by phone, or log out/log back in and it will activate over the Internet.

Now inside the XP image you go into tools and ensure that the virtual integration is installed (this allows for better mouse and monitor control)

Finally at the end you'll be offered up - An update is available that adds support for RemoteApp to Windows XP SP3 virtual machines on a Windows 7-based computer:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961742.  Once you install that final piece your Windows XP apps will be "exposed" to the desktop of the Windows 7 machine.

It's a little geeky to set up, but once you have all the pieces in place, it's a very cool way to

a. ensure that older apps that only work on XP can be deployed on your Win7 boxes

b.  ensure that you haven't forgotten anything in the migration from XP to Win7

An update that adds RemoteApp support is available for Windows Vista-based virtual machines that are running on Windows 7-based computers:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961741/EN-US  You can also do this with a virtual Vista.

Go into the folder and search options

And tweak the hidden files and the hidden file types

Click those two boxes.  You can also chose these settings in group policy under the group policy extensions up on the server as well.

So I was helping someone with an IE that was a bit buggy and getting stuck and I asked them what did they last load up before it started freezing up ... and they said "Skype".

And sure enough Skype had added an IE add on that once we removed it, IE stopped freezing up.

I know these programs mean well, but it's annoying when they cause more problems.

https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter/sitemaintenance.html

Here's hoping this is good news not bad.

Just like when Vista first launched and I rolled out a couple of Vista's right at the very early beginning of busy season, I'm doing it again with Windows 7.  But this time I'm adding a bit of virtualization.  Key to a succesful migration is keeping an image of that old deskop around just in case.  In the past I would use storagecraft to image the drives.  Not anymore.  The current recipe is as follows:

1.  I copy of http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx.  Download it and make a image vhd copy of the original XP hard drive.

2.  I copy of a virtual hard drive resizing tool should the original PC be larger than 127 gigs. http://vmtoolkit.com/files/folders/converters/entry87.aspx  Shrink down the vhd.

3.  A spare server.  Now in the past I would buy a separate harddrive and put it inside the new workstation to be the respository of the virtual old machine, but with the HyperV/Virtual Machine/XP Mode technology I can just plop that vhd drive on a spare file server somewhere.

4.  Now you can use Windows Easy Transfer to move stuff, but you can also merely go into the Windows 7 interface and merely attach that built VHD

This now makes that old PC a functional drive letter on the box.  But what about making it a XPmode computer?

Download the XPmode parts. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Ensure that you've flipped the workstation to support the HyperV technology.  In the HP xw4600 workstations that I'm a fan of and bought more of (soon to be retired) it's in the security settings of the bios that you have to enable it.

You then launch the virtual machine, (which always looks to me like a general folder with the word "Create machine" on the top as the only difference.  Then you name the machine, leave the location for the config file on the local machine, now here's the fun part... in the Add a virtual disk, click on "use an existing virtual hard disk" and browse to that file server you have the vhd's parked on.  They don't have to be on the same machine, you can set them up across the network.  I've not seen a major speed impact across the lan and these virtuals are more for my "oh crap I forgot that personal file/folder/etc that you forgot to tell me about before I rebuilt that old machine and rolled it back to the OEM/retail/VL media build it came with" backup.

The fact that you can natively just attach a VHD to a Windows 7 is a very cool feature that is greatly easing my migration tasks.